Legend of the DKnights
by Crimson Saber
Summary: Through shadow, through chaos and dark flame, five heroes rise above their calling. Destined to battle forces rivaling death itself, they struggle to master the very nature of love itself. With blades of flame and courage, they rise to stop a new evil.
1. Chapter 1

**READ FIRST**: This is the re-vamped digital sword, I'm taking off the original story and completely writing it anew, but luckily there were only five chapters and now, I promise I'll try and aim for weekly updates. note: if this wasn't clear from the first story, this is an AU fic.

Alright, so as promised, here's the revamped digital sword. Now, bear in mind that there have been massive leaps and bounds in the quality of the writing and as such, there have been mass upheavals of the story and re-tooling of the characters. Rest assured, that they're for the better and the major premise hasn't changed, in fact, I think I've made these couples even closer to the genuine thing. A good amount of thanks goes to a name that you bleach readers will know well: takaondo, he's a good friend and has been working closely with me to improve my writing so if you enjoy the change, then it's thanks to him and experience. ok, now, read on and enjoy

* * *

Legend of the D-Knights

Chapter 1

Heroes in need

In holy day, in cursed night,

No demon shall corrupt my sight

Let those who wield dark evil's blight,

Beware this power….my flame burns bright!

* * *

Odaiba -Valentine's Day

We find a 21 year old Tai Kamiya running around the park, dribbling a soccer ball around between his feet. Evading imaginary defenders, he spun and kicked the ball straight into the net.

"Oh sweet! I still got it." He pumped his fist in victory and was whooping around like he was a kid again, hands in the air, doing the cheering. He continued this until he tripped and fell on his face.

"Ouch! That's going to leave a mark."

Tai rolled over on to his back and looked up at the sky. He chuckled. "I think I'm getting too old for this." He stayed there for a little while and reminisced about his times with his friends in the digital world. The front had been quiet for a little while, a couple of years had passed, 5 to be exact from the end of his adventures and Kari's.

There was that little disturbance by the d-reaper 2 years after Davis and the others defeated Malomyotismon. Tai had met his newest successor, an unsure kid with a strong heart and enormous power. Truly, Tai was happy to have other people willing to continue the fight. Takato was as willing as any.

All of his friends had grown. Joe was on his way to becoming a doctor, Izzy was busy trying to develop software to try and rival some American's. Matt was still trying to make it big as a rock star. Tai rolled his eyes at the thought.

_He's only getting by on his looks. I don't hear what all the girls seem to. I'm not a big fan of his music._

Mimi was actually aiming to becoming a cook, for some reason, even now, Tai couldn't see Mimi elbow deep in dough. Tai laughed at the thought of her facial expressions at the imagined situation. As for Sora, she was studying to become a design major.

_Sora….._

Tai's mind lingered on her as he daydreamed. All those wonderful times they'd had with their friends, braving danger together, him telling her that the crest of loves suited her.

_She used to get so angry at me when I said stuff like that._ Tai smiled widely. The wind tossed his hair, refreshing him and gently drying the sweat off of his face. Tai sighed and sat up on the soccer field, contemplating further on his best friend.

They had been friends since childhood. And she'd grown into quite the young lady. _Long flowing red hair, amber eyes, great smile._ Tai opened his eyes and realized he'd been fantasizing. There was a moment of shock but then a moment where he simply thought. _Well that's no surprise._

Tai had to admit that Sora was quite desirable to him. No girl understood him better and frankly, only Kari was able to read him better than Sora. Sometimes, Sora was even better at it than Kari. _So what are you waiting for?_

Tai got up from his seated position and went to dribble the ball some more, pacing and thinking. _But what do I say? Sora, I've loved you since the day I met you? No, that's too strong. Hey baby, how's about we take my car out for spin?_ Tai rolled his eyes at that last thought. He kicked the ball back into the net, but hit the crossbar. _Yeah right, even I would laugh at me if I said that._

Tai got the ball again and dribbled to the end of the field. He cut back and made his charge for the net. _Jeez Tai, why can't you just say 'Sora, I really like you, would you want to go out with me?'_

The revelation hit him like a ton of bricks. He was nearing the goal and slammed the ball hard, nailing the inside corner of the net. _Goal!_ Tai beamed at his accomplishment and ran over to scoop up the ball. He had only brought his ball and his cleats to the park, but thought nothing of it as he started walking to Sora's.

_I hope this goes well. Ready or not Sora, I have to do this! _He reached the edge of the grass and began walking on the sidewalk. He hit the side walk and started 'click-clacking' down the street. The cleats sort of bothered him as he walked the few blocks to the flower shop where Sora was sure to be working at this time of day, but he didn't mind.

Reaching his destination, he stood outside the shop trying to calm his nerves and prepared himself for a dramatic and damn heroic entrance. He took one last long breath before the plunge and then he opened the door.

"Sora I…."

He stopped right there. The scent of flowers would forever be imprinted in his mind with this moment. Matt, was holding Sora. Matt….. was holding…… Sora.

Tai couldn't move, he couldn't think. He just dropped the soccer ball at his feet and wanted to stop existing at that very moment. The next moment, Tai saw Matt lean in and kiss her, long, deep and lovingly. The soccer ball had dropped and hit a few empty planters, interrupting the couple. They turned to see Tai who had his face shadowed by his hair. "I'm sorry for interrupting." Tai scowled, grabbed his ball and slammed the door shut as he angrily stomped down the street.

Sora grimaced and ran after him. "Tai, wait, Tai!"

Tai tried to run, but his cleats slid, he took a tumble and twisted his ankle on the pavement. She gasped and tried to run after him. "Oh my god, are you ok?" Tai gritted his teeth and tried to run again, limping as fast as he could. She almost caught up to him, but he threw himself across the street, narrowly missing a car and with that he started limping back to the park.

She stood horrified at the corner. "Why'd you do that you idiot?! Tai, come back!" She was about to chase him, but Matt caught up to her and hugged her from behind. "What's wrong?" Sora stared at where Tai had been with concern, but simply answered "Nothing…"

Tai stumbled and tripped his way back to the soccer field, finally collapsing as he reached the grass. He gripped the ground and started sobbing. He didn't know if his ankle or his heart hurt more but all the anger and hurt just overwhelmed his outward pain. The tears watered the grass and Tai lay motionless for a long time.

_Maybe it's time to throw in the towel on this one…… _Tai rolled over and stared at the afternoon sun. _But I…… can't quit, courage can't quit….._

_

* * *

  
_

Nearby…

Davis Motomiya was getting out of bed at the crack of noon. Now 18, he was a senior in high school. Tall, muscular, tan and goofy he had become quite the heartthrob on campus. It was the off-season and a Saturday so he had been sleeping with Demiveemon on his face for most of the morning.

Davis groaned. "Demiveemon, get off…." He rolled and the little puppy digimon rolled off of his face and onto the floor with a small thud and a resounding "Ouch! Davis! I was sleeping on that!"

Davis sat up in bed and eyed him, annoyed. "Yeah, you were sleeping on my face. Unfortunately for you, I need it to charm Kari today."

Demiveemon snickered. "Yeah like that'll happen."

Davis lunged at the snarky blue devil. "Why you……come here you little hairball!" Demiveemon jumped, avoiding Davis's attempt at grabbing him and landed on his head. He danced around on Davis's head and threw his tiny arms in the air. "Yay! I win!" He was absolutely adorable with the smiling face and cute voice.

Davis smile and reached his head, gently plucking the digimon off. "Not for long!" Demiveemon gave a shriek of delight as Davis tickled him silly. "Ahh! I give, mercy, mercy." Davis laughed and relented. "Lucky for you I have something to take care of." He glanced at the clock and paled. "Oh crap, I could be late."

Davis placed the little creature on his bed and began getting dressed. Shirt was on in a flash, but he was nearly tripping trying to get his pants on, but he was caught in one of the pants' legs. His head came into contact with the wall. "OOF!" he reeled a bit, deftly putting his pants on while sitting down after the collision.

Demiveemon found this absolutely hilarious. The blue demon was rolling on Davis's bed with laughter. Davis simply grimaced as he mussed his unruly hair into something resembling his normal hairstyle. He ran out of his room and snatched the toast that popped out of the oven before Jun could. "Hey!" Jun whined after him.

Davis winked and devoured it before jetting to the bathroom. "Sorry sis, I have something important to do!"

Jun put her hands on her hips. "Oh yeah? Well what's so important it has you rocketing around here?"

Davis's fussy head peeked out from the bathroom door, foaming toothbrush in his mouth. He took it out before speaking in a sudsy mumble. "If you must know, I'm asking Kari out. I got to get there before T.S. does!"

Jun rolled her eyes. "Little brother, you're incorrigible."

He rinsed and spat into the sink before rushing into and out of the kitchen again. "I know." He smiled at her and knocked on his own open door. "Demiveemon, behave until I get back."

Demiveemon nodded. "Okay Davis!"

Davis proceeded to leave out of the door and blazed to the elevator. He tapped his foot impatiently as it descended and once the doors opened, he was gone before the 'ding'. Racing forward, he could have scorched the pavement with his speed in getting to the Kamiyas'. His heart pounded the faster he managed to go, but it wasn't because of the running.

Davis felt downright giddy at the thought of this going right and he jogged merrily up the stairs. _Kari Kamiya, will you be mine?_

_We'll shake the world and I'll never let you go. It's time for this goof to get it right for once!_

He reached the third floor quickly and took off towards the Kamiyas' apartment. Rounding the last corner, he saw a flash of blond out of the corner of his eye and recognized it immediately.

"Freaking T.S. what are you doing here?!" Davis was too busy being angry to stop running and he plowed directly into T.K.

"Davis, what the hell man, can't you learn to use the brakes?!"

Davis rubbed his head a bit before staring hotly at T.K. "It's not my fault that the pavement doesn't have any friction! Anyways, what are you doing here?!"

T.K shrugged. "What does it look like? I'm asking Kari out." He then tried to knock on the door, but Davis had other plans. Springing into action, T.K. was tackled to the ground and Davis flung himself at the door. The two wrestled around and banged up against the door.

"I'm asking Kari out T.K.!"

"In your dreams Davis, I was here first!"

"I don't care!"

All of a sudden, they felt the door open and the two fell inside at the feet of a shocked Kari. The young woman gasped at the sight and the two stopped fighting. With Davis grabbing T.K.'s collar and T.K trying to push Davis off, the two greeted her.

"Hey Kari!"

"Kari! This isn't what it looks like." TK said while struggling with Davis.

Kari put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot, annoyed with her two friends. "Then why don't you tell me what it is?"

"Kari would you go out with me?!" both of them blurted out and then started fighting again. Kari had had enough and dragged both of them apart. ""Ok guys, cut it out!"

Both of them panted as they stood in front of her, dispersing glances of hatred at each other and glances at Kari. "So what's it going to be Kari?" T.K. Stepped forward and held a hand out to her. "Me or Davis?"

Davis looked at him incredulously. _That's just not fair, you can't ask her something that blunt, man! _Kari bit her lip and Took T.K.'s hand. Davis's mind reeled, that simple gesture said it all.

"T.K. I like you… but…."

Davis didn't need to hear anymore, he took out a small package from his pocket and threw it at their feet. "I see how it is. I'm not hanging around where I'm not wanted." He slammed the door and zipped away.

"Wait! Davis!" Kari wanted to run after him, but T.K. held onto her hand. "Don't Kari; he's not going to listen." Kari wanted to yank her hand out of his at the moment, but didn't. Kari picked up the small package and opened it. Inside, there was a silver necklace with a gold pendant. The pendant was half of a heart with the crest of miracles on it.

The shock struck her as she remembered seeing a silver chain around Davis's neck. There must have been a corresponding piece with her crest on it. _Oh Davis….this is beautiful._

"Kari?"

She clutched the precious jewelry to her chest like her life depended on it and looked T.K. square in the eye sympathetically." T.K…. I…I think you'd better leave."

T.K. was shocked at this statement and honestly a bit hurt. "But why? I thought you liked me?"

Kari stared at the little trinket. Somehow it gave her the strength not to cry. "I'm…just not sure right now."

T.K. frowned and complied with her request. "Fine, later Kari." Kari shut the door behind him. And slunk to the couch. Lying down she stared at the ceiling and felt a few tears slip out. "Wonderful, now both of them are mad at me.

_Running, always running._ Davis ran toward the stairs and zipped down even faster than he'd come up. His legs felt so fatigued after the run, but he didn't care. All the anguish he had felt back there, he forced into his legs and ran. _I can't be there, I can't….deal. _

_

* * *

  
_

East Shinjuku

A 16 year old Takato Matsuki was in his room, fiddling with his crimson DS lite, playing Digimon world dawn. Takato no longer looked quite as nerdy as he had before; he was taller, leaner and had developed some muscle running around with Guilmon. He was lying on his bed, knocking out some digimon or another with his newly digivolved gallantmon. He beamed at the screen and Guilmon sniffed up at it, casting a questioning glance at it. "Takato, how did we get in there?"

Takato laughed and patted Guilmon's head, the latter wagging his tail."It's just a game, boy. I raised another Guilmon in it."

Guilmon looked saddened. "Another Guilmon? Don't you like me anymore Takato?" He had his claw up to his mouth, chewing on it in despair.

Takato immediately stopped playing, scratching Guilmon's ears and then rubbing his belly. "No Guilmon, that's not it at all. I can't talk to or play with that Guilmon, you're my one and only!"

Guilmon's leg twitched as Takato rubbed his stomach. "Ah, that feels good." Takato patted him on the stomach and then resumed his gaming until a conversation on television caught his attention.

He saw a Pink-haired female being hugged by a male teenager with flame bandana. The background, from what Takato could recognize, looked like Konoha. Naruto was a very popular show in this universe. Takato however couldn't recognize the characters. He sat silently as he witnessed the exchange:

"**I know that…..some statements were made….statements that should have been rethought. I wasn't calling you a monster, I was just describing the amount of strength you had."**

**She made no moves. "Did you really have to use monster? I'm sure you know the stories of how my father was treated."**

**He gripped a bit firmer and hugged her as best he could in their position. He felt her stiffen and then relax. "Hey come on now, this is us we're dealing with here. We both know I slip up sometimes and I'm sorry."**

**At this she uncurled a little. And he was able to meet her deep blue eyes with his vibrant hazel. Her eyes were bloodshot from the tears and there were still some lingering on her cheeks, but he brushed them off. "Do you really think I'm amazing?" **

"**Of course and I'd never do anything to hurt my best friend."**

Takato grabbed his television remote and checked the information that was available on the series. The screen put out the title "Elements of Order."

Takato stared on in bewilderment as the show continued. The physical contact, the intimacy between the characters, it was all so alien to him. He wanted to know that. He suddenly envied the dark-haired hero. All the feelings he'd shut away when Jeri dumped him resurfaced.

He and Jeri had dated for a short, short while when their adventures ended, but she said she couldn't be with him after the megidramon incident. She couldn't see him without seeing that monster he turned Guilmon into. She ran from him and they didn't speak for a little while. Henry voiced his support and comforted Takato, but Rika was the one who surprised him.

She found him crying in Guilmon's den and in a rare display of affection, comforted him. She sat with him for a little while as he cried onto her shirt. As she left she paused for a moment.

"…_If you ever need me, you know I'll be there…"_

Takato reclined on his bed, reconsidering what she had said. As he thought about her face, his heart started beating faster. Sitting up on his bed, he stared outside the window at the sunny world outside and mulled things over for a bit. _Maybe she….no, what am I crazy? Rika wouldn't go for someone like me. She's independent and strong……and kind of cute… Hmmm, maybe, I should go talk to her._

He shut off his game, TV and got dressed in a flash. Guilmon was buried in a flash of Pajamas. "GAH!"

He was completely covered in head to toe.

Takato dug him out and gave him a piece of Guilmon bread. "Sorry, boy, I'll be more careful next time."

Guilmon waved him off as he munched. "I'm ok, but you were leaving?"

Takato blanched. "Uh…oh yeah, I'm gonna go see Rika, but I'll be back later, so stay put ok?"

Guilmon's ears dropped. "Aw, but I wanted to play with Renamon."

Takato rubbed his partner's snout. "Next time, I promise ok?" Guilmon wagged his tail. "Ok Takato, I'll be a good boy."

Takato smiled. "Thanks, I'll be right back."

He ran down the stairs and picked up a bun from his parents bakery. Shooting through the front door and barely avoiding an incoming customer he managed to yell back. "Bye mom, Bye dad! I'll be back later"

Takato's parents stood bewildered, but his father eventually chuckled. "I didn't think Takato would be running out of the house on Valentine's Day any time soon. "

Takato's mother just shook her head. "My little boy's growing up."

Takato was nothing if not motivated this time around. _It's Valentine's Day, this could work out well._

Takato bolted down the street, kicking up small gusts in his wake. Let it never be said that he was slow to get somewhere he wanted to go. He passed the last street right before Rika's and had to grind to a halt and turn at the next one. Shoes nearly liquefied from the friction burn, he strolled the half a block more left to go.

He stopped cold when he spotted Ryo going through the gate; the digimon king had also grown taller and now sported a dashing head of hair. _What's he doing here? Rika hates him! _Takato spotted a tree over looking Rika's fence and opted to go with that. Struggling to climb a bit as he was more of an artist type than an athlete, He managed to get up on a low lying branch.

Takato panted as He saw Ryo ring the doorbell. He didn't know whether it was climbing the tree or Ryo being there, but he was sweating a little bit. The door opened and Rika's mother, Rumiko, greeted the young man.

"Why hello Ryo, it's good to see you! "

"Hi Mrs. Nonaka, is Rika home?"

"Yes, let me get her for you." She leaned into the house. "Oh Rika, that charming Ryo is here!"

"Mom, don't talk about him like that!" Rumiko chuckled and Ryo smirked.

"She'll just be another moment; it was nice to see you again." She bowed and went back into the house.

"Nice to see you too." Ryo sprayed some breath freshener into his mouth as he waited.

This action made Takato tense from his position standing on the flimsy branch. He heard a rustle and was suddenly confronted by Renamon. He was caught off guard and stumbled off the branch, suppressing a scream, he tried to grab the branch, but felt only Renamon grab his arm and lift him back up.

"Why are you up here Takato?

Takato gulped. "I was coming over to visit Rika, but Ryo showed up and I wanted to see what was going on?"

"Why would you not simply ask him?"

Takato looked nervous. "It's complicated….."

She looked at him closer. "Tell me the real reason why you're up here."

"Ok! Ok! I was….thinking about…..how I feel about Rika."

Renamon set him down on the branch, but didn't let him go. "……And?"

Takato sighed. "I think I might like her as….more than a friend." He cringed as he finished his sentence, thinking maybe she'd slap him or something. He was surprised that she let go and was now staring at him with appreciative curiosity.

"Very well then Takato. You can stay." Takato was in shock. Was she actually smiling at him?

"Umm….Thanks Renamon." She nodded as he straddled the branch, looking down at the doorway.

They heard footsteps and Ryo's smirk widened into a smile. Rika had grown in time since their adventures; she was now turning into a blossoming young woman, complete with curves, her trademark heart shirt and sweeping red hair. She poked her head out and yelled. "What do you want Akiyama?!"

Ryo didn't even blink. "Now is that any way to treat an old friend, wildcat?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah, spit it out"

"I challenge you to a card duel!"

Her eyes lit up. "Name a time and place and you're on!"

"Ok then, tonight, 8pm, the park."

"It's a date! I hope you're ready to lose."

Takato suddenly wanted to go away and never come back. He jumped out of the tree, this time without fear and started running, ignoring Renamon's pleas. "Takato, wait!"

Rika's ears picked it up but she disregarded it as Ryo continued. "A date eh? Should I bring the candles and spaghetti?" He advanced and put his hand on Rika's shoulder, at his own very, very high risk. She grew a wicked grin and flipped him over and stared down at his face. "Not like that you dolt, what do I look like, a Disney princess?"

She turned and went inside, but not before stating. "Get ready to lose your best cards." The door shut and Ryo got up and left. Takato was a few blocks down, running, stumbling his way blindly as far as he could go. Tears were threatening to escape his eyes and a few managed too, but he choked them back.

_I knew it wouldn't happen. I'm such a wimp and he's so much cooler. Can't you keep your feelings to yourself Takato?_

_You're not a wimp. You are a Hero and you know what you felt, what you feel right now. The night is darkest before the dawn and it's not getting any darker._ Takato heard Gallantmon in his head, voice ringing out proud and tall even if he couldn't see him. Takato slipped into an alley and sat against a wall. He wanted to cry, he was tempted to, but he bit back the pain. He looked at his D-arc and wanted to crush it right then and there. _Tai called me a knight of courage, some knight I turned out to be._

The device's screen started glowing and the symbol of courage blazed bright on it. Even in the shadowed alleyway, it lit up Takato's face. He stared at it, no longer choking his tears back as he let the warmth bathe over him. He sniffled as he wiped the tears off his face.

_Maybe I should go talk to Tai. It's better than sitting around here crying._

He recomposed himself and headed toward odaiba, clutching his digivice, almost as if for dear life.

* * *

Shibuya…..

We find a 15 year old Takuya Kanbara pacing the streets. Walking in a bit of a slouch he was just trying to salvage the day. He had been turned down by J.P., Tommy, and Koji for hanging out that day. Kouichi had a girlfriend to tend to. Takuya sighed until he remembered someone he previously forgot.

_Zoe! Of course!_

He immediately dialed her number, but received no answer and then got her answering voice. "Hi! This is Zoe; I can't come to the phone right now."

Takuya ended the call in frustration. "UGH! This was the perfect day to hang out, too!" He noticed the date on his phone and blushed a bit. _Well she does owe me that date._

He saw no other options as he strolled around the corner, fully intending to see if she was at home. _I wonder if she remembered. I know it's been a while, but I doubt she'd forget something like that. _

His group had wrapped up about a year after the d-reaper had tried to destroy everything; however, they hadn't had their powers yet. They had kept in contact and hung out a lot, but whenever he and Zoe were alone, they made no moves one way or another.

Takuya was a bit annoyed at his subconscious. _It's not like I would anyway, she's crazy. Crazy, with bright, green eyes…….soft blond hair, gorgeous._

Takuya smacked himself. _Idiot! Stop thinking like that. You're just gonna hang out. And if it leads to kissing later, then who am I to complain?_

Takuya frowned; he was really over thinking this. _Maybe I should go check her house._ He crossed the street and walked over the three blocks or so to her house. Turning the final corner, he caught a glimpse of his target and….Koji!

Takuya ducked out of the way, into an adjacent bush, to avoid being seen. As the two passed in his direction he heard.

"So, where do you wanna go?"

"Oh, I don't know somewhere romantic!"

"*groan* Alright…fine."

They soon walked out of sight and Takuya was able to slip back out. Unfortunately for Takuya, he'd jumped in a thorn bush and was now covered in scratches and bleeding a good amount. "Ouch, ouch, ouch. Aw man, this really hurts!"

He danced around a little, trying to ride out the stinging pain. "Jeez, what was that all about?" He looked in the direction his two friends had gone and walked in the opposite direction, hands stuffed in his pockets. _Well, I'm out of stuff to do today. _His heart throbbed a little. _What the…..?_ _Why does it hurt?_ He looked behind his back briefly. _It was just some innocent fun right? There's nothing to worry about, right?! Why would I care if she's dating him? Oh god she's dating him?!_

Takuya's head swam as he wandered off to the train station. _I need to take a nice, long walk, somewhere kind of far, hmmm, odaiba!_ Takuya boarded the train, sat down and put his headphones in and rode it out.

_Baby I will wait, for you. _

_If you think I'm fine it just ain't true._

_Don't tell me I ran out of time._

_If it takes the rest of my life….Baby I will wait for you._

Takuya hated his MP3 player very much right then and there……. He hung his head and started dozing off.

* * *

Back in Odaiba….

Tai was pacing around the soccer field, ankle still throbbing he hobbled around as best he could. _Damn ankle…Damn matt…Sora. _He stomped his bad foot down and felt it crack back into place with a wince of pain. He flexed his foot a little and sighed in relief. _At least that's one problem solved….._

He jogged around to kick the ball but a blur passed in front of him, taking the ball with it. Tai whirled to see Davis running toward the goal and kick the living hell out of the ball. The ball hit dead center and even breached a bit of the net. Davis stood huffing at the net, fists clenched and his breath was coming out in clouds in the chilly afternoon.

Tai caught up to him. "Whoa, Davis, what's up buddy?" Tai grabbed his shoulder but Davis didn't turn around. "Kari….."

An expression of shock ran across Tai's face. "What….?"

Davis ran out of Tai's grip and took the soccer ball from the net and cut around Tai. Tai understood, Davis was calling him out and he answered. Tai caught up to him and stole the ball, then ran for the other goal. Davis matched his pace for a bit, but when he tried to steal the ball, Tai faked him out and scored.

The two stayed staring at each other. Tai didn't know whether to continue or ask Davis what had happened. Davis however, had no idea that something similar happened to Tai, and Tai could tell that from his body language.

"It hurts….doesn't it?"

Davis halted his focused stare and finally stopped his mental tirade to pay attention to Tai. "Yeah….did something…did something happen dude?"

Tai sighed and bounced the ball on his feet for a while before answering. "Nothing that I couldn't have prevented."

Davis kicked the ball out of Tai's grasp. "But didn't you fight?! Huh?!"

Tai shook his head. "This is one fight that I'm not sure I can win."

They both heard a sniffle behind them. "Well that's certainly not something I wanted to hear…"

Tai turned around and smiled. "Takato! It's been a while." Davis grinned widely and patted the younger goggle-boy on the back. "Yeah dude, how you been?"

Takato laughed nervously and sniffled again. "Well, kind of the same. I overheard that last bit while you guys were talking."

Tai's smile fell, as did Davis's. The three stood on that soccer field awkwardly for a minute as the wind blew. Takato looked at his digivice, which was still glowing with the symbol of courage. "Doesn't seem like this means much does it?"

"Is that a digivice?" The three turned to see their newcomer. They saw a boy only a little younger than Takato, squared goggles with olive hate, gloves and shorts. A golden shirt adorned his frame under a crimson button-up. Fire colored shoes on his feet with brown hair and hazel eyes.

Takato was dumb-founded, but knew people had a better idea about digimon. "Uh…yeah, but why do you care?"

"I'm a digidestined!"

"No way dude!" Davis's mouth went agape.

"Really?" Tai inspected the new goggle-boy

"Oh cool!" Takato was excited at the prospect of a new friend.

Takuya nodded. "Yup, but…um…I don't have a digivice anymore. The guys in charge took them back."

"Harsh dude."

Takuya sighed. "Yup, I am a warrior of flame no more."

Tai hugged Takuya's neck and playfully gave him a noogie. "Hey, you're a goggle-boy, it's never over. Now, what's your name stranger?"

"Takuya, Takuya Kanbara."

Tai grinned. "Well Takuya, I'd like you to meet Davis and Takato, my name is Tai." Tai gestured at his successors in succession.

He shook their hands. "Good to meet you guys. "

"Nice to know you dude."

"Yeah, great goggles."

Takuya cast a questioning glance at the three gathered before him. "So did I stumble into some secret meeting or something?"

The three looked around nervously. There was no answer as the three didn't know what to say. "Oh wait, I think I get it, Valentine's Day not going so well?"

"No." Tai kicked the ball around sheepishly.

"Nope." Davis crossed his arms and scoffed.

"Nuh uh." Takato shifted his feet nervously.

Takuya hung his head. "Is it the goggles or something? I just don't get it some days."

Tai shrugged. "We can't change what happened, I'm not even sure we can change the outcome."

As soon as those words left his lips, Takuya's cell phone started glowing with the symbol for fire. This earned shocked expressions from those gathered as his phone took the old d-tector shape. "Whoa! It's back!"

Davis poked around the new device. "So this is your digivice?" he grabbed it, but unwittingly pushed the side button. The D-tector started glowing in Davis's and Takuya's hands as the scanner attachment projected a beam of light behind them.

The beam hit a spot not too far away and it slowly formed into a decent sized portal. Beyond the veil, there was a colorful background but slightly unfocused. Takato ventured cautiously towards it, but Tai pulled the younger man behind him. "Hold it kid, we don't even know where it leads."

There was a blast of flame that spurted out of the opening and the two were forced back. They saw a figure running towards them from the other side; he held a sword in one arm and some kind of bundle in the other. "Don't close! Don't close! Don't close! AUGHH!" The figure was blasted with some unknown energy and was thrown forward in a smoking ball to the real world.

As he made it through, the portal suddenly closed behind him. The four unsuspecting digidestined looked upon their new arrival. Crimson and gold armor, Samurai helmet with a dragon motif and a simple crimson mouthpiece, a small dragon crest on the forehead. The bundle in his arm was revealed to be a rookie digimon, a small dragon with samurai regalia, its body was crimson and his armor was black, the studs running along its body were gold.

The sword on the other hand, was an ornate Katana, with a hand guard resembling the crest of courage. Orange cord wrapped on a white handle, it also sported markings on the blade. The markings, however, were the most surprising thing about the newcomer. There, staring them in the face, were their own symbols lined up chronologically. The last two being Takuya's and the same dragon symbol on the young man's helmet.

The armored teen groaned and the four stepped back cautiously. Rolling around, he checked his bundle and hugged the digimon tightly. Surprisingly his other arm seemed to be barely capable of keeping the sword in his grip. The goggle-boys managed to see the crest of courage on his back. Kneeling and looking around at them in apprehension, the young man tried to lift his sword to defend his digimon. "Where….*ungh*…where am I?"

Tai stepped forward and kneeled to eye level. "Relax, you're among friends." He held up his digivice and the knight let his sword arm drop to his side with a tired sigh. "Thank god…" With that, the knight passed out on Tai's shoulder, still clutching the young dragon tightly.

Tai almost let him fall through his hands and he tried to shoulder the injured teen, but the armor made him too heavy. "Jeez, a little help here guys?"

Davis grabbed the knight's upper torso and Tai held onto the ankles. "Come on, let's get him back to my dorm, we don't need any questioning parents. Takuya, Takato, Follow us."

The two nodded and without another word, the five were out of there as quickly and discreetly as possible.

* * *

OK! so did you enjoy it? if you did or didn't then, if you have the time to review, I'd greatly appreciate it. Every review goes toward me bringing you this quality writing and may entice me to update on time.


	2. Knights of flame, wielders of courage!

Alright, here's chapter 2, I'll admit the first one didn't go over perfect but eh, nothing rarely ever does on its first go. There was ONE complaint about OOCness, nobody else complained, but I'll try to stand up to the impossible standards that person expects me to adhere too. Another critic, was great, I had a long discussion with lord Pata about how the characters should be better portrayed and I agreed with a good amount of what he said, so I'll be tweaking the story to better suit expectations. Other than that, I really like how this story is turning out and I like that people like it too, so enjoy chapter 2 and as always R+R so I know how you guys feels about it. I once again thank Takaondo for his expertise and Lord Pata this time around for the suggested tweaks, hell other authors are welcome to message me, I love exchanging ideas.

* * *

Legend of the D-Knights

Chapter 2

Knights of flame, wielders of courage!

* * *

In holy day, in cursed night,

No demon shall corrupt my sight

Let those who wield dark evil's blight,

Beware this power….my flame burns bright!

* * *

Tai's dorm-Odaiba

Tai and Davis entered the dorm first, followed by the other goggle boys. Tai shuffled his feet around as they made their way to the couch. "Here, Davis, just put him down on the couch, and careful with the sword!"

Davis grunted in effort. "I gotcha Tai, just ease him down!"

The two heaved the knight onto the couch and the other two checked around for anybody whose attention might have been raised because of this display. Takuya poked his head out of the doorway and looked down the ends of the hall. "I think the coast is clear. Did you hear anything Takato?"

Takato poked his head out right under Takuya's and did one more scan before shaking his head. "Nope, I think we're good."

Tai sighed and sat in the computer chair by his desk, hand over his face in exasperation. "Ok, that was close, just close the door and sit down you two, we have to sort some crap out." Tai opened a cupboard near his feet and took out a bottle of vodka and a shot glass. Pouring himself a shot, he downed it in one go and put the glass and bottle aside for later.

Suffice it to say, Davis was surprised. "Whoa Tai, you drink?"He asked, pointing to the bottle.

Tai shook the mostly filled bottle. "Nope, this is an emergency stash."His words already slurred slightly, giving testament to his low tolerance, thus low consumption.

Davis rolled his eyes. "Jeez." He plopped down on a chair and kicked his feet up on the couch. Takuya and Takato took seats opposite Davis on the small dining table. Tai poured another shot and took a small sip before swilling it around in his hand for a bit. "So boys, what do we deal with first? The guy in armor on my couch, or the reason I have a busted ankle?"

Davis stewed in his chair angrily while Takato twiddled his thumbs. Takuya sunk in his chair and tapped his fingers on the table.

Tick

Tock

Tick

Tock

There was nothing but the sound of the clock, seconds ticking off their lives and weighing on their hearts. The second hand slowly made its rounds as the people assembled grew more and more irritated. Finally, Davis let a hand fall from supporting his face, making a sizeable sound. His eyes were slightly misted over as he spoke "I messed it up today, I almost cracked TK in the face."This was all he said as he stared out the window with a look of disgust, as for who it was aimed at, no one wanted to guess.

Davis resumed his muttering. Tai fixed a focused gaze on his successors. Each of them coping in their own way, Takato and his nerves, Davis and his anger and then there was Takuya, who seemed just plain down. Tai really didn't know what to feel.

There was sorrow, there was anger, but it wasn't all for his cause, he felt like each of these teenagers before him had been denied something. Taking another sip, Tai relished the burning that his liquor brought. The fighting spirit was rising.

Unbeknownst to them, the armored teenager was slowly coming out of his coma. Inaudible groans escaped his body as the room came into view. _Where am I?_

Takato's mind was reeling. _ This is all like a slow train wreck. What I'd give to take all of these feelings back._ But then he re-thought what he was originally convinced of. _Would I really feel better, if I didn't have these feelings for Rika at all?_ He stopped his body from shaking and his eyes gained resolve. _No, she gives me a reason to fight, I-I care about her._

Tai's eyes caught this and locked onto Takato's. "You feel it too don't you?"

Davis and Takuya looked at the scrawny teenager and noticed the look between him and Tai. Davis was super anxious. "What are you talking about?! The only thing I feel is game over man, game over!"

Takuya however, finally caught what the digidestined of courage and the digital hazard were talking about. He punched Davis right in the face. This shocked Takato, but not Tai, who had his eyes closed in thought. Davis reeled and spat out a little blood was about to tackle Takuya, but Takato grabbed him and held firm. "Hey man! Let me go, I need to give this young punk a lesson in manners!" Davis yelled as he fought against Takato's grip.

Takuya scoffed. "You were willing to give up on Kari; I don't know what kind of claim you lay to the line of courage." Takuya's eyes were alight with emotion as he spoke.

Davis growled low. "What do you know rookie?! I saved the world because I kept fighting. I don't know what I can do about Kari! This is the first time I've ever felt helpless!" Davis was nearly screaming, despair evident in his voice.

Tai finished his last shot and slammed the glass down on the table, breaking it. This called the attention of the squabbling teenagers. The three saw in his eyes, determination, heroism, and just a touch of recklessness. "Liquid courage can't even begin to compare to what I can do. None of you should be any different."

Takato set Davis upright. "Helpless or not, I knew you couldn't give Kari up as long as you cared about her. Was I wrong Davis?" Takato asked, letting Davis go and patting him on the shoulder.

Davis clenched a fist and put his other hand on Takato's head, ruffling the latter's hair in a brotherly fashion. "No Takato, you weren't wrong." He finally smiled for the first time that afternoon.

They heard a chuckle and a groan as the figure on the couch rose from his prone position. "Well now, that's exactly what I wanted *cough* to hear." With a couple of creaks and a few cracks in his bones, the figure stood at his full height. With the dull light reflecting off of the armor and the proud posture, the teenager seemed to stand much higher.

Tai's eyes narrowed. "Who exactly are you?" The young man's presence was interesting to Tai.

The knight held up the sword. "Take a guess." There was a bright crimson glow as the armor receded. After the glow subsided, the mystery knight was revealed to be around 19 years old. Black jeans and a crimson long sleeved shirt were on his frame. On the shirt was the same symbol that he had on his helmet while armored and a pair of Crimson-rimmed, gold lenses goggles sitting on his head. His dark brown hair was swept back in a very uncanny imitation of Squall's hairstyle and his hazel eyes were focused. Crimson, fingerless gloves topped off the look and an ornate sheath appeared for the Katana strapped to his belt.

The four before him gasped. There, standing right before them, was another goggle-boy. Tai's eyes rolled back in his head as his chair tipped over with him in it. WHAM! He hit the floor kind of hard and rolled out of his chair. Davis moved to his side and checked him for signs of life. "Yeah, he seems fine, just dazed, and hell, who wouldn't be?" Davis laughed nervously as he tried to slap Tai out of it gently.

Takato nodded. "Two new successors in one day will do that to a guy."He snickered.

Takuya reclined and exhaled deeply. "So what's your name stranger?" He asked, putting his feet up as he sized up the newcomer.

"Shinkasu, Shinkasu Hinomoto. I am the digidestined kindred of the dragon, you can call me Shin!" He extended a gloved hand to Takuya who accepted and shook it. Davis bumped his fist and Takato shook his hand as well. Then, leaning over the downed Tai, Shin looked right into his eye. "Taichi Kamiya I presume?"

Tai reached out a hand to be helped off of his tipsy butt, which Shin was more than glad to oblige. "Yeah, that's the name don't wear it out."

Shin helped Tai back in his chair with ease. "Good, because I've been looking for you four goggle-heads."

Davis cocked an eyebrow. "For what?" This was certainly an odd way to get introductions started.

Shin raised the blade again. "This. This blade carries with it our combined destinies. Now, I think you guys have had some troubles with loved ones. I'm here to train you, but I'm also here to help you." He extended a hand to Takato. "Do you care that deeply about Rika? Truly?"

Takato nodded. "Yeah, I guess I really do." Shin smiled and patted him on the back. "Of course you do."

"And you, Davis, is there no more fight left in you, boy? Have you given up? "He leveled the blade at the destined of miracles. "Hell no man!"

"That's right!" Shin stood on the table and then pointed the blade at Takuya. "You, Takuya, bearer of flame, fire needs wind to live. Are you going to let it go out?"

Takuya shook his head.

Shin nodded approvingly. "Damn straight." He then whirled to a straight standing Tai. "I don't even have to ask you, do I?"By now his grin was wide and eyes shone with confidence.

Tai shook his head and Shin laughed. "Yes! Now, digidestined of courage, your destiny calls you to fight for the digital world again. Will you heed the call?" His movements grew more excited as he spoke.

"Yeah!" Was heard in unison.

Shin sheathed the Katana and held it out to them. "Then touch this blade and you will be awakened, far stronger heroes than you ever thought possible. Join with me as brothers in arms and I assure you, we will fight. Show the world what you can do." He locked eyes in succession with each one of them to detect any uncertainty.

He then recoiled a little bit, unsure of how to proceed. "Now consider this carefully, once you accept this there is no going back. We'll be targeted and wished dead by enemies far more powerful than malomyotismon. Our families could be at risk, and our friends…."

He paused to scan his new comrades' faces, but saw no signs of relent. "I will help train you, and you will use this power to protect your loved ones. So, are you all in?" He left the question hanging in the air as his grip tightened around the scabbard in anticipation.

Without another word, four hands were thrust at the blade and as soon as they contacted, there was a bright white light that issued forth. Warmth shot through their bodies and the blade lifted into the air. Floating around in a circular pattern, it went so fast that there seemed to be visible copies.

There, in fact, were copies coming out of the sword, 5 to be exact. The shining blades positioned themselves in front of their chosen wielders. Crest hand-guards, their primary colors on the cord and hand-guard, and secondary colors on the handle. So Davis's sword had a blue handle wrapped in gold with the crest of miracles as the hand guard. Tai had one with an orange wrapped black handle and the crest of courage. Takato, Crimson on top of silver and the digital hazard symbol. Takuya, Bright red over deep orange and the symbol for flame. Finally, Shin received one with Crimson over gold and the dragon symbol.

Standing in awe, the five hefted their swords. Tai looked his up and down, his fingers seemed to smolder. _It's so….familiar._

Takato held his blade firm and felt the heat coming off of it. _It's warm…and friendly._

Shin patted his shoulder. "Like a little heartbeat right?" He asked as he surveyed the new group handling their chosen weapons.

"Yeah..." Takato was entranced by the new sword.

Davis swung his around a bit in an amateur manner; however, he was surprised to see flames licking at the edge of his Katana. "WAH! What the hell?!" The flames intensified and coiled on his sword in a visible river. "Uhh….Shin? What's the deal?" He tapped the blade, burning himself slightly as he did so.

Shin sheathed his sword. "The power of flame, reinforced by courage. The blade leads the way with wild heart blazing savage."

Takuya scratched his head. "Great, try and be more cryptic. Why don't you?" He put his Katana away too. Shin chuckled and patted him on the shoulder before moving to the couch to check on his partner. "You need to figure it out for yourselves, as for right now however; there will be no using of ANY of these powers." His face denoted the severity of this statement.

Tai groaned. "But why? What if we need them in a pinch?" Shin leaned over the couch. "If you truly need them…" his eyes flashed crimson. "They will come to you." The flash left in an instant and he kept looking at his partner.

Tai sighed. "Fine, how long is the probationary period?" He asked, arms crossed, not satisfied.

Shin thought about it for a moment, picking up the small dragon and cradling him. "Just until we train, I don't need you guys being a danger to yourselves or others." He didn't remove his gaze from the unconscious digimon, so he didn't see the looks of concern on the others' faces.

"Um…." Davis was looking pensive.

"What?" Shin asked over his shoulder.

"We can't exactly go into the streets with Katanas on our belts you know. So is there anyway, you know, to hide these?" Davis pointed to the swords and the other 3 nodded.

Shin put his partner back down and paused for a moment. "Well, let's see, I think I remember some saying to get them to go back in, but let me think for a second." He put a hand under his chin and donned a look on concentration.

Takato was silent as he let the new digidestined think; he looked out Tai's window and mulled some more things over. _This is nuts! I get essentially rejected and then new powers in the same day._ He put a hand on his forehead, clutching it lightly._ Ugh….my head hurts, I'm going home to nap after all this is over._

Takuya cast another gaze at his sword. "So this is really happening isn't it Davis?"He asked, eyes not leaving the blade.

Davis shrugged. "Yup, seems like we've still got a duty to the digi-world. Are you ready for this rookie?" He gained a mischievous smile as he looked over at the younger goggle-boy.

Takuya's eyebrow twitched. "Why do you keep calling me that? Shin's clearly the newest goggle-boy here." Takuya pointed over at their new friend and Davis laughed before putting an arm around Takuya's shoulders. "Because dude, you're obviously younger than he is."He said, pointing at them as he did so.

"*Grrrr* ……Fine." He pouted and Tai, Davis and Takato started laughing at him good-naturedly. Shin chuckled too. "Can't keep you guys down long can they?"

Tai shook his head as he laughed. "Nope, but having Davis around sure doesn't hurt."Tai gestured to his successor, who was giving Takuya a noogie.

Shin nodded. "This is true. But on another note, I think I remember the saying. It goes 'at battle's end, be gone until I'm to defend." Shin's Katana changed into a ball of light and stored itself in his heart."Useful, isn't it?"

Davis nodded, adjusting the strap around his waist. "Useful, but it's way too long to remember. Why don't we just say 'be gone'?" Davis's katana mirrored Shin's and disappeared into his heart. Shin sweat-dropped. "I hate you….."

Davis chuckled and gave him a thumbs-up. "If there's an easier way to do anything right, trust me to find it."

Takuya rolled his eyes. "Wonderful." He pointed at his sword and stated "be gone." Tai and Takato responded in turn and soon that problem was taken care of. Tai looked at the clock and it read 6 pm. He saw the sun going down and called their attention. "Hey guys, it's getting late. Takato, Takuya, don't you guys need to be getting home?"

Takato saw the clock and grinned sheepishly as he made for the door. "I guess you're right, my mom is probably worried sick by now." As he finished, his pocket started vibrating. "Yeah, that's probably her right now….ugh, I got to get going guys." He opened his phone and waved goodbye to his friends. "Hi……mom? Yeah, I'm on my way home right now, I was hanging out with Tai…..We need milk? Alright I'll grab some on the way home. "Takato rolled his eyes as he let the door close behind him.

Tai chuckled. "He's still that kid I met a couple of years ago. He shouldn't have too much trouble getting home, he's only in Shinjuku." Tai paused as he remembered Takuya."Where do you live Takuya?"

Takuya pointed toward the train's direction. "I have to take the train to Shibuya, so I'd better be going real soon." Tai thought for a moment. "Hey Davis."

"Hmm?"

"Could you give the rookie a ride home? I'd drive, but I'm just a little tipsy." Tai blushed a bit in embarrassment.

Davis rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Come on Takuya, let's get you home. Tai, always good seeing you, Shin good to meet you." He shook their hands as he also made for the door.

"Yeah, great meeting you two, but my mom will also kill me if I'm any later, hehe." The remaining two waved as Davis and Takuya also vacated the dorm room. Tai exhaled deeply as he sat back down in his chair and Shin resumed his spot on the couch, placing his injured partner on a pillow.

"What's his name?" Tai leaned over the back of the couch to inspect the digimon. Shin patted his partner on the head. "Ryudamon."

"Hm. Is he going to be all right?"Tai asked, patting the little dragon's armored head.

"Yeah...he should be fine; he just needs to rest for a bit. That reminds me though, where's Agumon?" Shin asked, noticing the absence of the yellow reptile.

Tai was at a loss for words, he'd completely forgotten about him! "I have no idea, normally, he's hanging around here, but he hasn't made a peep the whole time." Tai checked around the corner and stared into the hall of the apartment-sized dorm. "Agumon? Are you here, buddy? Where are you? "

He checked the two rooms and the bathroom, but found no sign of the saurian digimon. "Huh, he must have stepped out or something. If he's not back tonight then I'll have to go looking for him."

Shin was a little shocked at the nonchalant answer. "You act like you're not worried about him."

"I worry; it's just that he's old enough to make his own decisions." Tai checked the computer for any messages and found a note. "Tai. Went out to see Biyomon. Be back later. Hmm, well that's odd."

Shin reclined. "Like digidestined, like partner."

Tai moved to the opposite end of the couch and adjusted Ryuudamon so he was in between himself and Shin. "You really think so?"

Shin nodded. "Probably, I'd put money on it if I were a betting man."

Tai pulled a lever and the footrest came out to cradle his feet. "If you had bet on us, you probably would have lost."

Shin cracked a grin. "It isn't about playing the odds in this case."

Tai clicked on the TV. "Let's just hope tomorrow's better, what's the plan?"

Shin shrugged. "Aren't you supposed to be the leader?"

"Yeah, but I make sure we STICK to the plan. Everything else, I just wing."

Shin sighed. "Yeah, well, that might not be such a good idea. You want me to start your training tomorrow? It'll take a month at the shortest."He said nonchalantly, Tai however, didn't take the news as such.

Tai looked at him in shock. "A MONTH! That's a little excessive isn't it?"He asked, hands flailing in wild gestures to accentuate his point.

"Do you want to fry Sora with a fireball? Maybe, burn your apartment down? No?! Then you need time to control it." Shin's tone couldn't have been more sarcastic.

Tai scowled and crossed his arms. "That was a little uncalled for."

Shin sighed. "Dude, I've been on the run in the digi-world for months, I get blasted dead on with a fireball this afternoon and to top it all off, I got this mess to deal with. So forgive me if I'm a little on edge." Hit tone rose at the end of that.

Tai chuckled.

"What's so funny?" He asked, looking incredulously at the older man.

"Edge, sword." Tai laughed.

Shin paused for a moment and then started cracking up. The two laughed for a good few minutes, even coughing a little bit and holding their sides, it eventually subsided.

Tai wiped a tear away as the residual chuckles left him. "That was so lame, but I needed a good laugh."

Shin was holding his sides as he nodded. "Yeah, that just melted away all the stress for today."He reclined like Tai had and had settled in good and relaxed.

The two sat on the couch watching some weird game show 'ultimate ninja'. Tai kept thinking about the events that had transpired as he spaced out. _Well today was sure…interesting. Sora's with Matt and all of those other couples happened apparently. Seemed like a total wash and then this guy shows up…._

Shin laughed as he saw some heavy-set woman fall into a river moat after trying to get through an obstacle course.

_He's an oddball alright, but he's a goggle-boy. I hadn't thought about it, but how did he know so much about us?_

This made Tai suspicious, of only a little. "Hey shin…"

"Yeah?"

"How did you know all that stuff about us if we'd never met you before?" Tai cast him a questioning glance and Shin didn't skip a beat. "Entering the digital world of this plane, I was mistaken for either one of you guys or another. I seemed to get Takato a lot though."

"Why's that?"

Shin pointed to his hair and then to Tai's. "He's one of the only ones to have normal hair haha."

Tai grinned embarrassedly. "But is that it?"

Shaking his head, Shin got up and walked to the kitchen. "Nope, Gennai found me and de-briefed me, and then I just kind of worked off of that. Us goggle-boys have a tradition for striking out."

Tai sweat-dropped. "If you tell me that it's happened to you too, I might need another shot." He snickered.

Shin returned to the couch and tossed Tai a soda. "Take a shot of that. Drinking's bad for your health. As for my situation, there was more blood, more violence and a few near deaths."He opened his can and took a sip.

Tai caught the Soda on reflex because Shin's answer left him speechless. "Did you….did you kill anyone?"He slightly backed away on the couch.

"Oh! No, not like that! I wouldn't sink to that level. Our team was good with weapons and I dueled my best friend. Tensions just exploded, and this, this came DURING a fight with one of the new enemies. I…I…lost my cool, almost got them killed because the damned creature started toying with my memories."

Tai nodded solemnly. "That is unfortunate. Are you going to look for them?"He cracked an eye open while taking a sip of his soda.

Shin shook his head almost immediately. "I don't want to cause them anymore pain, we're done with our main task in our dimension, fought a big bad already. So, since I've already hooked up with you guys, there's no reason to start dragging my history up."He finished his soda and crushed it with ease.

Tai whipped out his phone and pulled up the information for Izzy. "Well dude, I'm not going to tell you how to live your life. But in my experience, like it or not, something gets dragged up regardless. But we'll deal with that tomorrow. Right now I'm craving pizza like nobody's business and I got to make sure Izzy's cool with pepperoni."

Shin made no indication that he had heard him, so Tai simply called his roommate. "Hey, Izzy? Yeah, I'm going to order some pizza….yeah, from down the street…..no, we're not getting anchovies Izzy. Why? Because we have company over and nobody normal likes anchovies……uh, he's my uh…cousin…yeah, that's it…..look, I'm just getting pepperoni alright? Ok, later."

Shin chuckled. "Cousin?"

Tai snickered. "Yeah, imagine Izzy's surprise when he sees another goggle-boy in here. I can imagine it now. 'They're multiplying, AAAAH!' and then he'll run out of the room like his butt's on fire." Tai made some gestures mimicking what Izzy was likely to do, laughing as he did so.

Shin laughed. "Really?"

Tai nodded. "Yup, he did that when he saw me and Davis with Takato. Just between you and me, with the exception of Takato, we are notorious for our messiness, so it'll be fun to screw with Izzy."

"Yeah, so, pizza?"Shin asked as his stomach growled and he chuckled.

"Right, I'll cover it, looks like you could use a couple of slices." Tai said, pointing at Shin's singed hair.

"You got that right." Shin said, running a hand through his hair.

So began Shin's tenure at Tai's and not much else happened that night, same can't be said about our digimon knight, Takato.

* * *

Strolling home, Takato had his MP3 player on and his hands in his pockets. Bobbing his head to "Canon Rock." He was currently a few blocks from his house and nearing the last busy intersection before he heard "Takato! Hey, goggle head!"

Takato cringed as he knew EXACTLY who that was so he took a headphone out of his ear and slowed his pace. Turning his head back he caught sight of Rika running to catch up to him. "Hey Rika, what's up?"

"Don't 'what's up?' me. Renamon told me you were at my house today and I want to know why." Rika said, getting right up in his face.

Takato sighed and kept walking. "No you don't, heck; I don't even know why I showed up there today."

Rika wasn't satisfied with that and she cut him off before poking a finger into his chest. "Just dish it bucko. Tell me why you were spying on me and Ryo!"

Takato swallowed some of his pride; he bit back a shout when she said that. Unfortunately, they stopped in front of an alleyway, an alleyway that housed some unsavory looking characters.

A punk with a green Mohawk and a leather jacket had a bat in his hand. A skinhead with a leather jacket and a crowbar stood next to a punk with greasy hair and a chain. The leader with the Mohawk saw the two at the end of the alley and approached menacingly. "Well, well, well, look at what we have here boys! A little loser with a hottie for a girlfriend." The other two laughed maliciously.

Rika whirled at the statement and gave the leader a death stare, however her target wasn't intimidated. He smiled at her and licked his lips. "Ooh, this one's got some fire in her. Hey kid, why don't you take a hike while we have some fun with her." The other two started advancing as well, attempting to intimidate Takato with sheer numbers.

Rika moved in front of him and growled at them. "Don't you dare try anything…" She was afraid and it showed as her voice quivered. The leader stepped up and grabber her hand but she instinctively punched him square in the jaw, making him stumble back.

He gripped his cheek in pain before he snapped his fingers and the two forcefully grabbed Rika. Toting his bat, he approached her with a scowl. "You'll pay for that you little bitch!" He reared the bat back and was going to knock her out.

_Rika…no, I have to…save her…..no time for guilmon I can't sit here and do nothing. _He remembered Shin's words.

"If you truly need them…They will come to you."

Takato yanked Rika out of the line of contact and threw himself in between her and the bat, receiving a large blow to the head. It forced him to kneel in front of her with a hand protectively at her waist.

"Takato!" Rika was horrified.

The leader spat out in disgust. "You little punk, you want some too?! Fine! I'll beat both of you!" He roared and lunged for Takato before he noticed his bat was lighter. *CRACK* it snapped like a twig in his hands.

Takato looked at him with a blazing determination. "You won't hurt Rika. You'll have to go through me to do it." He stood as he finished talking and soon, he was coated in a light crimson shine. The other two tried to hit him with their weapons, but the chain snapped and the crowbar bent at a right angle.

The leader roared and punched him. All that greeted him was a sickening crack as his hand broke. "OUCH! You little freak! What are you?!" He looked at Takato with a mixture of hatred and mostly fear.

Takato fixed the hoodlum's eyes with a fierce stare. He spoke calmly as his body steamed in the chilly evening. "I'm the guy who's not going to let you hurt her. Are we clear?" he let the last word hang in the air as he stared the man down.

"Sure buddy! No problem!" The man up and bolted, followed closely by his two bumbling sidekicks. "Wait for us boss!"

Rika was in total shock. "Takato, what's happened to you?" Takato turned and locked his glowing eyes onto Rika's frightened amethyst ones and saw her fear, instantly regretting his actions. He immediately dismissed his power and stood in front of her. She recoiled in slight fear and even turned away from him.

"Are you…… scared of me Rika?" He asked, voice trembling slightly in fear.

Takato stood perfectly still as he awaited her answer. She stopped recoiling and took a look at the young man in front of her, now suddenly seeming stronger than had before. It wasn't the power, it was something else…..

Rika said nothing for a bit as she grappled with these events internally. He closed his eyes and turned away in shame. But she reached a hand out to touch the side of his face before her left her, turning him around. "No Takato, I'm not afraid. In fact….I'm grateful."She smiled warmly at him.

He put his hand on top of hers and felt her china doll skin and for a moment, he couldn't think of anything else. He affixed her with a deep stare. "Can you get home alright? I have some…things I need to sort out." He ached to leave, but waited for a response before making any attempts to do so.

Rika nodded as she slowly removed her hand, to the slight disappointment of both. "I'll be ok, but, please, if there's something bothering you, I want you to tell me. If I find out you're hiding something from me, then, there'll be hell to pay. You got me Takato?"She asked, pointing a finger at him.

Takato nodded before he took off down the alley and turned the corner. "I promise Rika."It was all he left her as he disappeared around the corner.

She stared after him and to her own surprise, if only for a moment, she felt her face grow a little hot. _Maybe it's time I get home…… _She turned the other way and strolled slowly home, thinking about her savior as she did.

* * *

Alright! wasn't that cool? Takato's the first one to get it started with that badass display, there'll be plenty of that to go around, believe you me. did you enjoy it? Did you hate its guts? leave a comment, but I'll remind you to be helpful in this process, that's why it's there. Flames aren't really welcome unless you have a point, and even then, I don't need my ass chewed out alright? cool, laters.


	3. Revelations

OK! so this is chapter 3. I've liked the reviews and the criticisms have contributed to the style and I just like it. as always, thanks goes to takaondo for his valuable editorial work and to the fans for making want to write this more. so r+r keep the flames to a minimum cause then everybody's pissed and enjoy!

* * *

Legend of the D-Knights

Chapter 3

Revelations

In holy day, in cursed night,

No demon shall corrupt my sight

Let those who wield dark evil's blight,

Beware this power….my flame burns bright!

* * *

Davis had dropped Takuya off and was now driving home in a bit of a daze, thinking about what had happened that day. Unconsciously tugging at the small amulet on his chest, he felt hurt. TK had gone up to Kari and basically put her on the spotlight.

_That wasn't fair. Not to Kari. Me, I could care less about because it was about what she wanted. He had to go up in her face and force her into making a decision._

He felt his conscience tingling at the back of his head. _Wasn't that was you were going to do? You even attacked TK out of your own foolishness. Did you even stay to hear what she had to say?_

'_TK, I like you……..BUT'_

Davis's eyes widened. _Could she have wanted to say something more? Maybe…maybe I still had a shot. Oh man, what if I messed it up my running out? I hope my gift didn't break when I threw it at her. Oh man, I threw it at her!_

Davis's face contorted into a frown as he wanted to scold himself. _Way to go Davis. _He turned onto his block and parked the car in the parking garage next to his complex. Exiting the vehicle and taking the elevator down, he exited to the sidewalk and almost turned the other direction.

_She's only a couple of blocks away, what's the harm?_

He turned on his heel to head in her direction but paused.

_What if she's crying? What if you made her cry?_

Davis's shoulders heaved a sigh as he headed for his own home. _I'll deal with it tomorrow, it's too late to start raising questions I might not want answers too._

Climbing up the stairs and entering his apartment, Davis was greeted with the smell of his mother's cooking….burning. "Gah! Jeez mom, what were you trying to cook?!"

Mrs. Motomiya was behind an upturned table, as was Veemon. "Oh uh, hi honey. I was just trying to cook some Sukiyaki. But I think I added too much spice." She laughed sheepishly as Davis's face contorted in disgust from the smell of the food.

Davis smacked his forehead. "The pot's going to boil over!"He cast an alarmed glance over to the offending pot.

Veemon looked at the pot's shaking lid and heard the whistling of built up pressure. Grabbing Mrs. Motomiya, he lifted her over his head and ran behind the couch. "Fire in the hole!"

Davis dove behind the couch with them as the pot reached its exploding point. "It's gonna blow!" Covering his head like hiding from a grenade, they expected an explosion, but they heard a door creak open and Jun's head peeked out from her room. "What is all that yelling out here?"She looked around and spotted her family cowering behind the couch.

"Jun get down!" Davis jumped from his cover but he was too late.

"Huh?" Jun turned her head toward the ballistic looking pot and was greeted with a face full of goop that proceeded to cover the entire kitchen. "AAAAAAAH!"She screamed as it filled her mouth and nose.

Davis dove to his original hiding place, being aided by the force of an exploding food projectile hitting him in the butt. "Gah! Dammit!" He crashed uncomfortably next to his mom and partner and the room was coated in the sickly green goo now adorning his butt and Jun's face.

Once the smoke cleared, Veemon peeked over the side of the couch cautiously and his eyes beheld the exploded pot, blooming outward like a steel flower. "I think we're green."He said, marveling at the destructive force of the explosion.

Davis rubbed his head. "I know my butt is, but I thought you were blue. " Mrs. Motomiya, who had been close to tears started laughing at her son's comment. Davis joined in and the two laughed together and at Veemon's deadpan expression.

Eventually he too laughed along with the rest of his family. They had forgotten about Jun however, she was standing utterly still, face caked in goop and hair blown backward with extreme force, she was too angry to move. "DAVIS!" She seethed through clenched teeth.

Davis held up his hands in defense. "I just got here! Don't blame me for the nuke that went off in here!" he rolled his eyes in annoyance at his sister's jumps to conclusions.

Jun's eye still twitched at him in irritation and Davis threw up his hands in exasperation before walking past her. "Yeah, fine, whatever you say! I'll be in my room." He shouldered his way past her and slammed the door as soon as he got into his room.

Taking off his jacket and changing into jogging pants, he threw himself on his bed. A soft knock was heard on the door. "Davis. Honey, are you ok?" His mom cracked the door open and her face was lined in concern. He masked on a wide smile and reassured her. "I'm fine mom, just tired." His voice resonated with none of the weight of his problems.

She smiled in relief and ran a hand through his hair. "That's good. I just thought you might be having some problems and I don't like seeing you sad." She looked at him concernedly, almost assuring him once again that she was there.

Davis smiled, truly at her. "Thanks mom, are you going to be ok cleaning up the kitchen alone?" He pointed out at the mess that was visible through the crack in the door.

She paled and looked at her mess but laughed it off. "Well, it's a big job, but I'll be fine. In fact…." She quirked an eyebrow as she stopped her sentence.

She turned her head outside the door. "Veemon, get in here, I don't need you making even more of a mess." Grabbing and leading him in, a grumbling Veemon followed very shortly.

Veemon huffed and walked in. "I'm just not good at cleaning, so sue a 'mon." He flailed in a comic fashion as he over dramatized his "disappointment."

Davis's mom chuckled and shut the door. Veemon hopped up onto Davis's bed and inspected the zoned out stare he was giving the ceiling. Waving a hand in front if his partner's face, Veemon was worried, there was no reaction. "Hey Davis, you alright buddy?" Worry was etched into his questioning glance.

Davis grunted a little and rolled over. Veemon's normally cheerful face dropped. "Hey come on. What's bugging you? You can tell your old pal Veemon. "He walked around to face Davis and gave him one of the goofiest grins Davis ever saw.

Davis's scowl slowly curled upwards until he started chuckling at his goofy digimon, he rubbed Veemon's head. "You truly know how to cheer me up Veemon."Hugging his partner even tighter, Davis's smile showed no signs of retreating.

Veemon gave him the thumbs-up. "Anytime, now, are you gonna tell me what's wrong?" Veemon kept pressing the issue to get things back to normal, or at least as normal as things got around here.

Davis's smile faded. "Just an odd day Veemon, let me tell you."He sighed as he revisited the memory in the corners of his mind.

Veemon jumped into Davis's computer chair and whipped out a pair of glasses, a toy pipe and a notepad with a pencil. "I see, I see, now vhat seems to be ze problem?" He badly faked a German accent and Davis just lost it. Holding his sides he managed to gasp out "Ok, ok, that was just too much hahaha!" This truly was one of Veemon's greatest skills.

The two laughed until they hear a tapping at the window. Davis fell off his bed in surprise and Veemon sweat-dropped. "Well done." Veemon turned back to the window and saw Gatomon dying of laughter at his partner's antics.

Davis rubbed his butt, which was still sore from the food impact, and glared at the laughing cat digimon on the windowsill. "What does she want?" he asked, pointing questioningly at the cat behind the window.

Veemon shrugged. "She just drops by on occasion. She probably just wants to talk." Gatomon wiped a tear away and pointed up towards the roof before disappearing. Veemon cast a glance at Davis who simply nodded. "Alright, I'll be back in a few."

"Be careful."Davis said as he turned back around to face the wall again.

Veemon paused as he stood at the doorway but said nothing more. Sneaking out of the apartment, Veemon slipped up onto the roof to see Gatomon seated on the corner of the rooftop. "Hi Veemon, how are you?" She was still chuckling from startling Davis.

He walked over and sat next to her, dangling his legs over the edge and supporting himself with his hands. "I've been alright I guess, how about you?" He smiled at her.

She shrugged. "Bored, there's nothing to do at home except for listen to my family for juicy gossip." She rubbed her paws together in a mock plotting fashion.

This piqued Veemon's interest as he cocked an eyebrow. "Oh? Anything interesting?" He smirked as he cast a glance.

She twirled her paw in small circles as she looked away for a minute. Veemon was growing ever impatient at her hesitation. "Come on Gatomon, spill it." He pressed her with his gaze.

The slight forcefulness startled her slightly. But she slowly breathed and continued. "Davis and TK were over today…….They burst in the door and there was a lot of yelling." She expected some kind of different reaction out of Veemon than he outwardly gave. "Yeah, I know, he told me about it this morning …and the way he came back….something bad happened didn't it?" concern permeated every syllable as he spoke.

Gatomon sighed and began pacing a bit. "Didn't it Gatomon?" He placed a hand on her paw, gently gripping it and imploring her to continue.

Her blue eyes locked with his red ones, but she was startled to see them crackle gold. "Veemon, what's with your eyes?" she asked, brow furrowed in disbelief.

He shook his head, rubbing his eyes furiously. "What's wrong with them? Get it out, get it out!" He was frantic for a bit as Gatomon stared on in disbelief, if not slight amusement. "Hold on! Stop running around, there's nothing wrong with them!" She grabbed his shoulder and wheeled him about, staring at his eyes once more.

Veemon felt a little weird under the stare of his cat companion and felt a blush creeping to his face. "Uh….Gatomon?" As he fought the urge to do something rash, his irises changed to complete gold. Gatomon discerned that something was up with her friend and she put her other paw on his shoulder so that he faced her square.

The new color added an unseen depth to the digimon standing before her and Gatomon herself felt a bit nervous as she realized she's been staring for a little longer than necessary. She turned away as she felt her face heat up a little. _It's just Veemon, get a hold of yourself woman. _She scolded herself mentally.

"So anyway, Davis ran out of the place angrily after Kari said she liked TK." This got more of a reaction out of Veemon. "I see, well now I know what happened…..I should probably go back to cheering him up." Veemon was about to leave, but Gatomon cut him off.

"No, wait, after Davis left, Kari told TK to leave. She walked into her room and put on this chain that I thought she got from TK…." Veemon nodded as he kept thinking while she talked."It wasn't from TK, or if it was, I don't know why it would have the crest of miracles on it."

At this Veemon smiled in surprise. "So that means…!" She cut him off. "That means that Kari put it on Veemon. Nothing beyond that. I can't tell exactly what she's feeling right now, but I thought I'd check to see how Davis was doing." She looked at him sympathetically.

Veemon nodded as understanding dawned on him. "Thanks Gatomon, you know how much Davis means to me. And how much Kari means to him….." his eyes were downcast at that thought.

She laid a paw on top of his hand. "I need you to work with me on this Veemon. This….this could be a really big hairball." She felt him squeeze back as he turned back to her.

"Gatomon, why is there so much drama? Can't we all just go back to being friends?" Almost in a statement, he was ready to pour his heart out.

Her blue eyes looked touched at his question and she hugged him. "It's ok, Veemon. Friendships change you know? Sometimes they just go a step further…."She felt him hug back and squeezed him even tighter.

Veemon grinned at this, obviously liking the attention. "Yeah, I know that…"He chuckled. "It looks like I'm not the only one worried though." Already, he knew that was true.

Gatomon held back a slight blush." I-I just don't want you to change alright Veemon?" She gently broke the embrace to get face to face with him, enhancing her plea.

He grinned. "Whatever happens" he winked at her "I gotcha covered alright?" He lifted her chin, thoughts racing as his heart told him to do something but he withheld.

In her mind she was asking why he didn't do it_. Why do I want him to do it?_ She turned her head and smiled sheepishly. "Thanks…" she pecked him on the cheek. "I'll keep in touch; just keep out of trouble ok?" She was about to leave but as she looked back, Veemon gave her a thumbs-up.

"Don't worry Gatomon, Me and Davis know how to get ourselves out of trouble. "He smiled really widely, with an air of heroism emanating from him, now more than she's seen in a long while. This made her smile grow and grow, until the two were absolutely beaming at each other. "Take care Veemon." She turned and started leaping across rooftops back home.

"Later…..Gatomon."

He sighed happily as he jumped back down to his floor, in a state of slight euphoria, however, slight disappointment also. For one thing, he couldn't tell Davis something he wasn't sure of, but for another…..

He thought back, her face was right next to his, he could have kissed her if he had a mind too and he did, but he couldn't. _I won't do it unless she wants me too, I don't want to hurt her._ This was his line of thought as he snuck back into the apartment.

Striding into Davis's room, he noted that his partner hadn't moved. "Still here huh?"

Davis didn't respond, or even make any indication that he had heard Veemon. Instead, he took out his cell phone and dialed Tai's number. The phone rang for a bit.

"Hello?"

"Hey Tai, what's up?"

"Hey Davis, did you drop off Takuya?"

"Yeah, the traffic was murder and I'm just beat man."

"So then why'd you call? Shouldn't you be sleeping?"

"Well duh, but I wanted to call to say that I think we should arrange a digidestined meeting tomorrow."

The other end of the line was silent for the longest time. Davis heard breathing, but he wasn't sure if it was Tai's or it could have been static.

"Tai? You still there?"

"Huh? Oh….yeah. Are you sure you're ready to see Kari again?"

Davis shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "We can't run from it Tai. It's an ugly truth that you and I both know we'll have to deal with sooner or later."

Tai sighed. "Yeah, alright, I'll send an email out, but dude…"

"What?"

"Just don't do anything hasty. I'm in your corner, but this is my little sister."

"Yeah….don't worry. I just wanna make sure they know what we're up against."

"Alright, I'm on it. Later."

"Later." Davis closed the phone and let out an exhausted sigh. Veemon was looking at him with interest. "What are you up to Davis?"

Davis shrugged. "I'm still in this Veemon, as long as I'm alive and those two aren't even serious, there's no way I'm quitting." Veemon grinned. "You're not gonna knock his lights out are you?"

Davis closed his eyes as he started drifting into dream land. "I was considering it." He chuckled before Veemon saw his head droop and snores poured steadily out of his partner.

"Oh brother." Veemon rolled the chair over to the window to stare at the moon for a bit. _I wonder if what I feel for Gatomon is the same….._ To Veemon's slight surprise, as soon as he had finished that thought, the reflection in the window altered.

Veemon saw a digimon knight, proud and tall. If only for a split second, he felt as if he could touch it, but as soon as he tried, it vanished. Veemon shook his head. "I must be insane…I'm going to bed."

Veemon propped himself down on the small cot next to Davis's bed and slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Meanwhile…at Takuya's

Takuya was currently sitting in the kitchen munching on a midnight snack he had whipped up due to not being able to sleep. _Mmmm, this is pretty good._

Takuya kicked back and stared around the kitchen, not knowing what else to do while he ate, he saw a not that his mom had left him earlier that he seemed to have missed.

_**Takuya, that little Italian friend of yours dropped by today. Just told me to have you call her.**_

_**Love, mom**_

Takuya sweat-dropped. _This would have been really helpful a few hours ago._ He looked at the clock and it read midnight. _I wonder if she's awake right now…._ He took out his phone and found her name in the phone book. His thumb hovered over the 'talk' button, but he wasn't so sure he wanted to press it.

_What if she's asleep? Well I guess the worst thing would be she screams at me. Wait, no, no, the absolute worst thing would be her telling me she's pregnant with Koji's baby._

Takuya made a face of mock disgust and then chuckled to himself quietly. _Yeah right, that's the last thing that would happen….Oh dammit, just call her Takuya. _

He pressed 'talk' and heard the phone ring a few times. After the third ring, he considered hanging up, but he was rewarded with a click and a sleepy voice yawning.

"Um…hello?"

"Zoe?"

"Oh, Takuya……do you have any idea what time it is?" He heard rustling on the other side.

"No, not really, I just found the note my mom left, like right now."

"You know this could have probably waited until morning." She laughed a little on the other end.

Takuya rolled his eyes. _Nice going Takky. _

"Oh, um, should I just let you get back to bed?" He secretly hoped that she would say yes.

"Nah, I'm already up, we might as well chat a little." Her tone was surprisingly warm for someone woken up by an unexpected call.

Takuya noted that and moved to the couch where he could recline and talk.

"Are you still there Takuya?"

"Yeah, just wanted to lie down."

She giggled. "If you're tired then why aren't you in bed silly?"

He smirked. "I'm not that tired, so what did you want to tell me?"

"Well I just came by to see if you wanted to go out. I haven't seen you in a while…."

"You must have just missed me, I had some…stuff to take care of up in Odaiba."

"Why do I get the feeling you're not telling me something?" She had reclined back into bed and was now staring at the ceiling

Takuya nearly panicked. _Jeez, she knows me too well…._ He thought up something quickly, being careful not to babble.

"Believe it or not, I met some more digidestined."

"Oh wow, really?"

"Yeah, bunch of nice guys hanging out and playing some soccer. Great sense of fashion too." He chuckled to himself.

She giggled. "What do you know about fashion? You've always got those goggles on your head."

"That's what I mean." They both shared a small laugh.

"Oh great, more goggle-heads, if they're anything like you, then we're in for some mayhem." She loved to tease him.

"Tch, you know I just keep things interesting. Besides, the goggles add a bit of dashing to my look, wouldn't you agree?" Takuya almost couldn't believe what was coming out of his mouth. _I'm flirting?! At midnight? What the hell's with me?_

"Hmm, I'll play it safe and say 'no comment.'"

Takuya wasn't one to back down once he got rolling. "Aww, that's just not funny."

She yawned as she giggled again. "You're so crazy, you know that Takky?"

Hearing his old nickname warmed his heart. "Yeah, I know, but that's just me. Even at midnight I'm still gonna try and make you laugh."

She giggled. "You know, I really do miss you Takuya. Are you busy tomorrow?"

"Not really, I was thinking of going back to talk with those guys again."

"Can I go with you?" Zoe twirled her finger around in her hair.

Takuya was a little surprised at these turns of events, but saw no harm in her tagging along. He finally yawned and ran a hand through is hair. "Yeah sure." He was always in the mood for her company.

Zoe yawned too. "Oh now you're tired, I didn't realize I was that boring." She said teasingly, smiling as mischief twinkled in her eyes.

A wave of nostalgia hit Takuya as he remembered his dream. He couldn't help but smile a little. Remembering the dream he'd had all those years ago. "But you're not. I guess I'm just…calmer now."His eyes shone in the moonlight as he looked out the window pensively.

She smiled to herself. "Well good. Why don't we get some sleep?"

"Yeah." He chuckled."We got a big day tomorrow, drop by around 11 ok?"

Her eyes hadn't lost their glint. "Can I flip you out of bed?"

Takuya grinned. "Maybe, we'll see. Good night Zoe." As if by pure instinct, he stopped himself from kissing the phone good night.

"Good night Takuya."

He closed the phone and got up from the couch. He didn't realize it, but at least an hour had passed in their conversation. Yawning and shuffling toward the bathroom to brush his teeth, he grinned lazily as he thought back. _Tomorrow's gonna be good._

As he nestled into bed, the smile never left his face. His heart was practically on fire from simple talking to her, but it warm and protective. In his dreams his spirit near soared and as he slept, a familiar symbol adorned his D-tector.

* * *

Back in Odaiba…..

Tai tossed and turned, swirling the sheets and eventually kicking them off, along with a snoring Agumon. Up until he was woken up so rudely, he scowled at Tai, he had been dreaming of Biyomon. He grunted and sleepily scratched his head and then yawned. He had snuck in late and just wanted to sleep.

_Jeez, can't a Mon get some sleep around here? Between Tai and Biyomon, I'm going to go insane. Ugh, maybe I should get a snack. _

After this monologue, he walked into the kitchen, got a chair and turned on the lights. He then opened the fridge and quietly made himself a sandwich, popping open a glass coke bottle that Tai had hidden in the back. _You snooze, you lose. _Agumon chuckled to himself.

He hunched over the sandwich and took a bite out of it and munched while he mulled things over.

_She seemed so worried when she talked to me. She said Sora had come in bawling her eyes out and saying something about Tai, I hope they're ok. Biyomon was afraid, and I'm afraid that she's afraid. _Agumon sighed. _Well, I'll just have to be here for Tai and Biyomon especially._

He then sat up in his chair, finishing the sandwich and letting his beverage fizzle for a bit. The world around him started to warp and fade as he stared at the glass, his mind raced with the memories of a forgotten life.

His vision suddenly turned into one much higher from the ground, but still standing upon it. Golden armor adorned his arms and his head was enclosed with a silver helmet. Agumon knew this form, Wargreymon. The hair sticking out from his helmet blew in the harsh breeze and wind-whipped water raining down on the battlefield.

The power….he felt his body course with it and relished in this familiar font of might until he heard a battle cry behind him. Green eyes snapping open he whirled to see what it was and was greeted with the sight of a sword coming to his face. Reacting quickly, his arm rose up and the sword glanced off before he jammed his claw into the assailant's face. He was rewarded with a dying shout and let the foe drop.

Scanning, he picked up on where he was, and what was going on. He saw corpses of evil digimon about. Devimon of all sorts, a Diaboromon and several Goblinmon were left to dissipate on that blood-soaked ground.

"Dramon Breaker!"

Wargreymon turned to see another armored dragon man flourish a large claymore around him, destroying more of these offenders and ran over to him. "Brother!" The mysterious digimon said as he took a stance back to back with Wargreymon.

"Brother?" Wargreymon asked, taken aback as new enemies surrounded them. He was forced to claw through another Devimon as his apparent brother cleaved three Goblinmon. "Yes brother. Haha, don't tell me that all this excitement has gotten to your head!" He smiled, impaling a charging Golemon, in front of Wargreymon.

Wargreymon shook his head in disbelief; he didn't remember any of this! However, A Neodevimon strove to drive a claw in his partner's back and he instinctively took off his brave shield and deflected the blow.

The Neodevimon shrieked in surprise as he was kicked back. "Away foul creature!" Wargreymon shouted as he gathered a flaming ball in his hands. The horde started backing away at the sign of this immense fire rivaling the sun. Wargreymon heaved a great grunt and hurled the attack in front of him. "Terra Force!"

The explosion deleted a swath of howling shadows and leveled a good deal more. Wargreymon panted slightly, the amount of power he'd put into the attack was alien at that point. His companion put a hand on his shoulder "Well done! That'll teach them to mess with Wargreymon and Victorygreymon!" Victorygreymon said, sword hefted high in victory.

Wargreymon's eyes widened. That name, it was familiar, but he'd long forgotten it. "Victory….greymon?" As he questioned this, his eyes stung with tears and he raised a claw to wipe them away. He looked at his gauntlet questioningly. _All of this, I remember, but why am I sad when I hear his name?_

He was about to get his answer. As Wargreymon stood next to his brother, a not quite dead Diaboromon swiped Victorygreymon from behind, surprising the sword-wielding warrior. "AHH!" Victorygreymon landed a few yards away, winded and now unarmed as his sword clattered near him.

Wargreymon spun and flew at the Diaboromon but was met with a giant beam dead center in the chest. "Web Wrecker!" Wargreymon winced as he too was sent spiraling backward. Victorygreymon stood however, picking up his sword and aiming to cleave Diaboromon, the unthinkable happened. The fiend projected some sort of portal from his chest and aimed it at his attacker. "Spatial rend!"

"What?! No!" Victorygreymon was forced to try and run the other way, but the portal's pull was too strong. In a last ditch attempt, he drove his blade into the ground and held on for dear life. He looked around to find Wargreymon and saw him finally rising to his feet again, a smoking hole in his armor from the web wrecker attack. "Brother! Help me!" Victorygreymon pleaded, face wrought with urgency.

Wargreymon groaned and shook his head, still dazed from the hit. He heard "Brother!" and immediately looked for the source of the voice, worried eyes falling on Victorygreymon. He took off like a rocket, instincts leaving no time for thought. "Hold on I'm coming!" he topped near mach speed and almost managed to grab Victorygreymon's claw, but he was swatted away by Diaboromon.

"Away flea!" the demon growled. "He's mine!" Diaboromon grunted in effort, and the portal strengthened in power despite the data flowing from numerous wounds. The ground holding Victorygreymon's blade was giving way, his mind was in panic mode, but he took heart as Wargreymon came flying in again and grabbed his claw.

"I've got you!"Wargreymon dug his feet in and tried to pull out of the vortex's gravity, but it was no use, the blade kept slipping. Victorygreymon swallowed his fear, he wasn't getting out of this, but Wargreymon still could.

"Wargreymon…" he said. Wargreymon looked at him, fear and panic evident in his eyes. Victorygreymon laid a claw on top if his. "It's ok, save yourself." His voice reflected calm and acceptance. Wargreymon violently shook his head. "Don't do it! I can save you!" He kept struggling and struggling to pull himself and his brother out of danger, but it was no good. Victorygreymon sighed and gave his blade a slight tug before catching Wargreymon by surprise and kicking him out of the way, effectively dooming himself. He closed his eyes as he felt himself being dragged in. "Goodbye……. brother." A look of peace washed over him as the portal started closing.

Wargreymon coughed slightly as he recovered and opened his eyes in time to see his brother disappearing into the vortex. "NO!" He lunged for it, but it closed before he even got close and he drove into the ground where it had been. _He's……..he's gone._ This statement echoed in the depths of his mind until finally he let a roar escape his body so fearsome that the whole continent shook in the pouring rain. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Eyes shut tight, he gripped the cold, uncaring earth. He was overwhelmed with grief and would have started crying until he felt a painful cold feeling in his back. Diaboromon's claw sunk deeper and deeper until it stuck out on the other side, pushing his chest armor away from his chest.

Wargreymon's strength was failing him, but he wasn't ready to die just yet. He bent the demon's claws so that they couldn't retract and turned to face the cackling devil. There was no fear in Wargreymon's face as he stood before his final enemy. Energy crackled in his right gauntlet as he felt his knees weaken. His spirit soared and he swung his arm high overhead in a fiery arc, refusing to die without a final, glorious moment.

"War driver!"He slammed it into Diaboromon's face and the demon ceased cackling. Diaboromon's data exploded all over the field and Wargreymon fell to his knees. His life force leaked through the punctures in his armor. One last, triumphant roar shook his body as he fell back to the earth. "GRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!"

The sun shone on his tarnished armor. The storm had passed and the now calm battlefield was bathed in the sun's golden glow. A tired smile split his face as peace washed over him. The last thing he saw, in the fading moments of his life, was a phoenix digimon soaring majestically overhead. _Beautiful……._

His body shuddered and relaxed. Wargreymon passed on and lay there for the longest while. Then, a wind picked up on the battlefield, the beating of wings resonated and a large shadow descended onto Wargreymon. A humanoid dragon with a beam rifle lance and wings that were so large that they could more than encompass his body landed next to the downed dragon warrior.

This holy being was known as Examon, the digimon dragon emperor and one of the royal knight guardians of the digital world. The land quaked when he beat his wings and his beam lance was one of the strongest weapons known to digimon kind. Examon stooped over Wargreymon's body and held a palm forward. "You have fought valiantly Wargreymon, your destiny however, has not come to fruition yet." Wargreymon's digi-soul exited his body and his body disappeared.

The small ball of pure white light entered Examon's palm. "You shall rise again, but right now, you have a meeting with some new friends." Without another word, his wings started flapping as he took off in an amazing display of speed, heading for the server continent.

Agumon started awake, he had developed a cold sweat as he had dreamed. _What…what was all that?!I hadn't remembered that before. Brother…._Agumon let a tear escape. _I promise, I'll find you._

He heard a crack and then gulped the remaining liquid down before the bottle could break any further. He wiped his mouth, let out a burp and then cleaned up. "Ah, good food, that definitely made me sleepy." He returned to grab his pillow and blanket and lie out on the floor. His last thoughts before sleep overtook him were about Biyomon and Victorygreymon. _I want to protect her, I messed up last time, and I'm not messing up any time soon._

Agumon heard a voice in his head recite a prayer. "Courage be my sword and love be my wings. Let the peace flow to me that wind and fire brings."

As he drifted off into dream land, Ryudamon stirred from his deep slumber. "Oh man, what the hell happened to me?"

He saw Shin sleeping next to him on the couch. _Yeah, that's no surprise. Lazy._ Ryuudamon looked around and sniffed the air, getting a feel for the place as he stopped to analyze the 4 new creatures within his range. _Hmm._ He took in a long whiff. _A scholar and an insect. And…..hmm, this other human has the scent of flame on him. Who is he?_

Ryudamon quietly snuck off the couch and crept toward Tai's room. Luminescent eyes shone like two small lights as his snout was raised to the air in case of any danger. Armor gleaming in the moonlight, he poked his head through the opened door and was shocked to see Agumon. Stumbling backwards, his mind raced.

_What? Who….who is that?_

Clutching his head, He knelt as he tried to sort it all out. _Why does he seem so familiar? _

_

* * *

New connections and now a new player comes to the game, this could be interesting. I hope you enjoyed it r+r  
_


	4. The Courage to Love

Ok, so here's chapter 4 done, and I really had some fun writing this one. Sorry if it took longer than you expected, but life gets in the way every so often. I'll try to settle into the school year and keep up a weekly schedule, hopefully, I give you my word I'll try. So yeah, of course I'll take this time to thank Takaondo for his council and I hope you enjoy!

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Legend of the D-Knights

Chapter 4

The Courage to Love

Shin slept on Tai's couch, tossing and turning as did his predecessor; however, Shin's dreams were far more disturbing than Tai found his own.

* * *

Dreamscape….

There was nothing but darkness, Shin was alone, sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest. He felt tears streaming down his face, but he seemed despondent. All that played in front of him were clips of a past life. A blond young man kisses a redheaded young woman, two knights dueling atop a tower and that same redhead crying at the sight of both trying to kill each other were among the memories. She was beautiful, deep brown eyes, long dark red hair in a ponytail and a face with a strong yet soft beauty.

Shin wanted to just not exist at the moment, he could hear her voice in his head saying "I never want to see you again!" and "I don't love you!" He clenched his fists; there was just too much pain to handle. Slowly, flame started leaking from his body; white hot rage took over from the fear.

He stood up and stared at the "Screen" in front of him. "I'm not afraid anymore! My name is Shin and I am the dragon D-Knight!" Eye blazing with fury, he heard a voice yell back at him. "You may be the D-knight of the dragon, but you have failed your teammates!"

He saw his teammates' faces towering above him, one, blond haired and green eyed, another had navy wavy hair and ocean blue eyes, the next, spiky yellow hair and purple eyes and the final one had earthy green eyes and long brown hair. They, as well as the young woman from before were surrounding him.

"You killed us Shin!" said the one with navy blue hair.

"You weren't worthy of bring our leader!" said the one with spiky hair.

Shin shouted back. "I did the best I could!" He said this through clenched teeth, on his knees. The redhead appeared in person before him and placed a hand on his face, wiping a tear away. "Why Shin? Why'd you go and have to do all this?" Her tone was sad, slow, and haunting.

Shin shook his head, fresh tears threatening to spill over. "I….I don't know. I just….loved you too much I guess." His last words were choked out; he was overwhelmed with all of this. The young woman's image started fading in and out and he tried to grasp her hand in vain. "No! Stay here with me….please!" He didn't know what to do.

Her hand left his face and she faded away entirely. "No Shin. It's too late." And then he was alone. Hands and knees on the floor, he stared down in shock. The voice from before, now demonic forcefully said. "She's gone! And it's your fault!"

Shin woke in the real world, screaming "NOOOOOOO!" He had instinctively pulled his Katana out and was dripping in a cold sweat. Unfortunately, he smashed the coffee table next to him and it splintered into small, burning wooden pieces.

Ryudamon fell off of the couch and Izzy and Tentomon jumped at the computer. "Our table, what in the name of bill gates is going on?!" Tentomon hid behind Izzy to avoid debris rain. "Goodness me!" He exclaimed.

Shin panted eyes feral and body tense to an insane degree until he realized where he was and lay back down. He dispelled his katana and ran a hand through his hair, letting the other one drop and hang over the side of the couch. "Jeez." That was all he said, leaving Izzy to try and comprehend what he was supposed to do.

Ryudamon rubbed his head. "Lord, Shin that really hurt!" He snapped at his partner who stared at the ceiling relentlessly. Ryudamon climbed back up on the couch and then over to Shin. "Hey, what's wrong with you?" He poked and sniffed around his despondent partner who simply said. "Nothing." And rolled back over, forcing Ryudamon to slide off of him and back onto the ground.

The digimon shrugged. "Fine you grouch." He yawned and stalked off. Izzy was currently stomping out the little flares that were scattered around muttering. "Those goggle-heads will be the death of me." Tentomon was busy helping him as well. "So destructive, this one's got a worse temper than Tai on a bad hair day." Tentomon sighed.

Tai and Agumon however, were both still snoring in bed, blissfully unaware at the situation outside, or their soon to be visitors currently standing outside the dorm door. Sora Takenouchi currently stood right outside, hand raised to knock, but frozen in position.

_What am I doing here? _

She honestly couldn't come up with an adequate answer in her mind, but Biyomon tugged on her pant leg. "Sora, just knock already." She said. Sora looked at her partner and smiled sheepishly. "Ok Biyomon, just relax." She knocked and heard rustling on the other side of the door. The first voice she heard was Izzy's.

"Who could that be this early?"

She heard another voice, this one unrecognizable. "I don't know Izzy, just get the door and get them out quick, Tai's still sleeping."

Sora rolled her eyes. _You're never up when I need you Tai._

She heard approaching footsteps. "Get them out? You smashed the coffee table into burning refuse, how about I get you out!?" Sora quirked an eyebrow.

Once again the unfamiliar voice spoke. "It was an accident Izzy, frying your computer won't be." He laughed.

As Izzy opened the door she heard him mutter "Pyromaniac." His face lit up with a smile as he saw her. "Sora! Biyomon!"

She smiled warmly at him. "Hi Izzy, how are you?"

He yawned a little bit. "Well enough, this new guest has me tearing my hair out." He stepped aside and ushered her in. "Come in! Come in! Make yourselves comfortable." He turned over his shoulder. "Hey, get sweeping, we have guests." He closed the door and took Sora's coat.

Sora's gaze turned to the couch where Shin lay and was surprised to find another Goggle-boy lounging on it. He rolled over to face Izzy. "Who is-"His line of sight fell on Sora. "Oh, hi." He chuckled somewhat nervously. He got up and dusted himself off, clearing some debris with his foot and motioning for them to take his place. "Sorry about the mess, you know, three guys in the house, it'll happen."

Izzy started for the kitchen, but not before saying. "Speak for yourself; I was just minding my own business."

She giggled and waved at Shin. "Hi, my name's Sora. And this is Biyomon." Shin stepped forward and shook her hand, before nodding to Biyomon. "Sora and Biyomon, my name's Shin, good to meet you."

Biyomon mirrored him and smiled politely. "Pleased to meetcha!"

Sora looked around for any signs of another digimon, but found nothing except for Tentomon. "Where's your partner?"

Shin sweat-dropped and looked around. "Um, well, that's a good question." He peered around the corner into the kitchen. "Hey Ryudamon, where'd you go?"

The crimson dragon came out of the kitchen with a giant sandwich, including ham, cheese and barbecue sauce, along with a full chicken, he was licking his lips. "Just getting a mid-morning snack." He looked up and saw the girls and immediately blushed in embarrassment. "Hello, uh, I know this looks like a lot, but half is for him. " He said, pointing to Shin.

Shin clutched his stomach and grimaced. "Even half of that would make me vomit Ryudamon. I don't know how you eat so much. "He said, shaking his head in disbelief. He turned his attention back to Sora and Biyomon. "Well, that's my partner, Ryudamon." He turned to the hungry looking dragon. "Be nice and introduce yourself."

Ryudamon swallowed the chicken whole and then threw a smart salute at the two ladies present. "Hi, I'm Ryudamon!" He grinned widely at the two and Sora couldn't help but giggle at the little dragon's enthusiasm. Biyomon rolled her eyes. _All these dragon digimon are just plain goofy._

Shin chuckled at his partner while swiping the sandwich from him and taking a bite. "So what brings you two here at this time? The digidestined meeting isn't for another hour or two. "He asked between mouthfuls of bread, meat and cheese. Right now he was outwardly nonchalant, but any experienced observer could tell he was judging her every move.

Sora was mentally stepping on eggshells. _I wonder if he knows…_ She decided to might as well tell him. "I'm here mainly to see Tai before everyone gets together." She turned a gaze over to Izzy. "And of course check up on Izzy and Tentomon too."

Shin shrugged."I don't know what to tell you, he's still knocked out. Came home pretty exhausted last night." He went to retrieve the broom and Sora and Biyomon sat down. Ryudamon passed by again, mouth full sandwich. Biyomon grimaced, that was just too much food. "How about Agumon?" asked Biyomon.

Ryudamon thought for a moment. "Well, I haven't actually gotten to meet him yet. I just woke up here around 3 AM, last thing I remember was getting thrown out of the digital world. Shin said Agumon got back kind of late last night." He though for another moment as he swallowed the last bits of his sandwich. "I think he mentioned your name actually Biyomon. Didn't you meet with him last night?" He was smiling internally as Sora's head cocked over with an amused look toward Biyomon.

The pink bird laughed nervously. "Well, uh…I….." Sora interjected, fortunately for Biyomon. "Why don't we just go wake them up?" She asked herself more than the other two.

Shin came back out of the kitchen and started sweeping. "Go ahead and try, you know how hard it is to shake Tai out of a deep sleep."

The heard Izzy shaking the mostly full vodka bottle. "This might have something to do with that."He had a hand on his hip as he sighed and put it back. "Must have been a really bad night, Tai almost never drinks."

Sora felt a guilty twang in her heart and Shin picked up on the little crack in her smile._ Izzy and I better skedaddle, those two will come to some kind of resolution if they don't have any distractions. _The apartment was silent, save for the sounds of Shin's sweeping and Tai and Agumon's snoring.

There was a slip and a crash inside the kitchen where Ryudamon had gone. Shin dropped the broom and poked his head into the kitchen. Ryudamon, spotting his partner, gave him the thumbs-up, standing over a broken plate.

Shin smacked his forehead and simply thought. _A little extreme but I'll take it._ He whispered. "Alright, now let's get the hell out of here before things get awkward ok?" He pointed behind himself and made it look like he was berating his partner.

Ryudamon smiled. "Aw, but the fun's just getting started." He chuckled as he walked back out of the kitchen. Shin turned back out with him. "Sorry guys. This little guy's pretty clumsy." He cast a mock scornful eye at his partner. Ryudamon just chuckled nervously.

Izzy rolled his eyes. "Great, another thing the two of you have broken." Tentomon sighed. "Well, let's go clean it up." Izzy heaved his shoulders and started walking toward the kitchen, but found himself being turned around and pushed the other way.

"No Izzy, it could be dangerous, I'll get it later. We have some errands to run before the meeting." Shin started pushing Izzy out and Ryudamon was pushing Tentomon out. "Yeah Tentomon, you and me need to round up some snacks." The dragon said as Tentomon tried to resist, but failed.

"But what about Tai?" Asked Sora, clearly perplexed. Shin smiled politely as he and Ryudamon managed to get the other two to the door and pushed them through. "Oh, don't worry, why don't you just wake him up and you two go to the meeting together?"

"But Tai sleeps in his- *oof* " Izzy tried to interject, but Shin elbowed him in the gut to stay outside and stay quiet.

"Tai sleeps in fuzzy pajamas is what Izzy meant to say. "Said Shin, laughing nervously. "Just go wake him up, we'll catch you later." He started closing the door but Sora heard one final "Sora! He's- *oof*"

She heard him elbowed again and looked concernedly at the door as it closed. "But I, uh…" Sora tried to protest, but the two were gone, leaving her and Biyomon alone in the apartment.

On the other side of the door, Shin had a hand over Izzy's mouth. "Shush Izzy, this is for their own good." Shin frowned when he heard a muffled "Sure, maniac." Izzy wasn't pleased.

"Whatever Izzy, just stay quiet. What were you going to say anyway?" He asked, looking back in the door's direction with some amount of nerves.

Izzy sighed. "I was going to tell Sora that Tai sleeps in his underwear, so, if she wakes him up, she'll get a really good view of Tai." He looked a bit skittish, almost like he wanted to bolt before it happened.

Shin's eyes widened as he started snickering. "Oh crap" He said between laughs. "I think we'd better get out of here." He started walking down the hallway and flinched when he heard.

"GAH, Tai!"

"Sora! What are you doing in here?! Ah, don't look!"

"Why don't you have any pants on?!"

"I sleep in my underwear! Why are you going around waking people up?!"

"It was a mistake!"

Shin sighed and cocked his head toward Ryudamon. "Run?" He asked, pointing a thumb down the hallway. Ryudamon nodded. "Run."

"Hey, don't leave me be-" Izzy wasn't able to finish, Shin was gone in a flash. "That guy's mentally unstable" Izzy sighed as he strolled down the hallway. Tentomon nodded. "You're not kidding Izzy."

Meanwhile, back inside Tai's room.

Sora was backed towards the door and Tai toward his headboard. His pants were within her reach and he cleared his throat. "Um, can you pass me my pants please?" He pointed to the pair of jeans next to her feet.

Completely red in the face, she looked down a little dumbly. "Oh! Uh, yeah." She picked the jeans up and gently tossed them over. Tai caught them and looked like he was about to say something. Sora leaned forward a little in anticipation. She did not however expect "I was going to ask you to turn around but, seems like that would be pretty useless now. "Tai chuckled nervously as his mind raced.

_Ok Tai, Sora's in your room, you don't have a shirt on, she's seen your little blue boxers and yet she's not bolted yet. So where do you go from here?_

Sora laughed nervously too, still blushing fiercely. "Sorry about that, I think Izzy tried to tell me, but your friend Shin shut him up." Her mind was also in a state of chaos. _You woke him up, he has next to nothing on and you're still standing in the room, red as a tomato, barely able to put a sentence together. Keep it together Sora, it's just Tai._

"_Yeah, it's just Tai without clothes on. He's got really nice abs."_ Sora heard the other part of her subconscious say and it made her blush just a bit more.

_Stop it Sora, you're spoken for. _She finally reasoned with herself.

Tai smacked his forehead. _That guy Shin almost seems like more trouble than he's worth. _Tai remembered the two digimon in the room, who hadn't really said much of anything to avoid making this awkward situation any more awkward. "Hey Agumon, could you two give us a little privacy?" This was more statement than question as he pointed to the door.

Agumon quickly clamored off the bed, still slightly shaken from waking up in all the chaos. He took Biyomon's wing and led her out, whispering. "Quickly, quickly, I don't want to be here!" She protested far too late as they were already halfway out the door. "But I want to-"

With one final gentle shove, Agumon got Biyomon through the door and closed it. "Trust me, you don't" That was the last they heard clearly because the voices became muffled after that. The two were left in the room, silent as a graveyard.

The clock on Tai's nightstand chimed it's alarm, ending any internal monologues either had going on. Tai instinctively pushed the snooze button, but he realized his mistake and pushed the alarm ender. Sora smiled at this. "Force of habit?"

Tai mussed his hair and chuckled. "Yeah, you know I like my beauty sleep." He put his pants on and whipped his legs over the side of the bed, patting the spot next to him. "Why don't you take a seat, you've been standing there for like 5 minutes."

Sora giggled. "Yeah alright, just put a shirt on, would you?" She sat as he stood and went to her bidding. "Yes ma'am" Tai said teasingly, walking over to his nightstand, almost tripping over on his jeans because they were kind of baggy.

"Hehe, don't hurt yourself now Tai." Sora said, laughing at his antics. Tai stuck his tongue out at her mockingly. "I didn't, so there"

The two laughed nostalgically, just like when they were kids. Tai slipped on a black muscle t-shirt with the crest of courage on the back. Sora looked at the shirt with marked interest, remembering the day she'd given it to him. "That's a pretty cool shirt, where'd you get it?"

Tai shrugged. "I've had it for a while, I think I got it as a present." He stopped and tried to think about it and understanding dawned on him. "Right, you gave it to me!" He rolled his eyes. "Clever."

Sora smiled warmly and said. "Yeah, I was hoping it wouldn't turn into another one of those beret things." She pointed to the very beret that sparked their fight, adorning her auburn hair.

Tai smiled to himself remembering that time, sitting down next to her. "Yeah, you were really mad back then. I'm almost glad Diaboromon showed up. Took my mind off of it." He laughed and Sora punched him in the arm. "You could have got yourself killed dummy." She said teasingly.

Tai mockingly flinched. "That's pretty much like the rest of our time in the digital world Sor." The old nickname brought fresh memories to the surface of Sora's mind. The two sat on the bed, not saying much of anything. Sora wanted to talk about yesterday, but Tai didn't, well, that is until he said. "I'm still waiting for those cookies you know."

She looked over in a little bit of shock. He still remembered. Sora stared at her long time best friend with that same old smile still on her face. "That's right I did say I was going to make you a special batch."

He smirked. "You know Agumon's never forgotten about those."

She giggled. "I bet."

Tai drew small circles on the floor with the foot he had injured, he had forgotten this up until the point where his foot caught in the carpet and he heard a crack again. "Ah! Stupid ankle." He yelped as he brought his ankle up to his waiting hands, trying to assuage the pain.

Sora kneeled in front of him and grabbed the injured ankle gently. "Hold still you baby, you're going to make it worse." She said almost motherly as she worked his ankle around in the manner which she'd learned from her time as an athlete.

Tai lay back in his bed, grimacing slightly as he felt every movement magnified a little by the pain. Sora's hands however, were delicate yet firm with his injury, he was amazed at her skill and eventually just tried to relax. "That feel much better. "Tai grinned as he propped himself up on his elbows to look at her.

Sora didn't look up this time however. She stared intently at the ankle as if trying to figure out what to say. Tai grew slightly worried. "Sor, what's wrong?" As soon as he said this, he mentally kicked himself. _Yeah, we both know what._

She kept at it, hands steady and slow. She finally spoke up after a few minutes or so. "This happened yesterday didn't it?"

Tai looked at her wistfully. "Yeah."

She sighed and she felt his ankle crack back into place. "Tai, I-"

"Sora, don't" He interjected, catching her by slight surprise. He withdrew his ankle from her grasp and leaned forward to get face to face with her. Tai could feel his heart rate going up, but outwardly, he was extremely calm. "I'm sorry about what happened yesterday Sor, but…..It's not like I can do anything about it."

She frowned at this. "Tai, I don't know what to tell you…." Sad eyes of hers and his were all aflutter. Tai cupped her chin in one hand. "Sor, we've been best friends forever and I want you to be happy…."

"But Tai, what-" he put a finger on her lips to interrupt her and continued. "Wait, let me say my piece. I care about you a lot Sora, and….I can't see that changing any time soon. Matter of fact you could say I l-"

He stopped himself. Sora could almost envision what he was going to say. "Tai, tell me…." Her gaze captured his, eyes dancing with doubt, sure, but she had never seen Tai so sure of something than he apparently was about what he wanted to tell her.

Suddenly a chill ran up Tai's spine. Instinctively he hugged Sora close and looked around. His senses seemed sharper, more animalistic. He saw an Airdramon out the window and dove to the floor, protecting Sora with his body. "Get down!"

*CRASH*

Glass and debris flew everywhere as the maw of the dreaded dragon's skull helmet and face breached the wall. Sora screamed as the two were showered in refuse. Fortunately, Tai's dive had saved them from any major damage. Tai checked on Sora, who was clutching onto him for dear life. _It's ok Sora…….I'm here._

He rolled himself and Sora out of the way and then pushed off and up with both legs, launching them back through his door just as the Airdramon took another snap at them. He landed on his shoulder and with Sora still on top of him and scanned for the two digimon, who ran to his side.

The Airdramon, luckily for them, got its head stuck in the opening it made for the moment, so Tai was able to regroup. He looked over toward the room and then at Agumon. "Ready to go partner?" He already had his digivice withdrawn.

Agumon shook his head, which earned a confused look from Tai. "I can't digivolve in here Tai; I'll bring the building down even as Greymon." He turned to the door as he heard "Spinning needle!"

The quartet was forced to find cover as the needles penetrated the infrastructure. Tai wasn't so lucky however; he received a needle right in the leg. "Ah!" He fell to his knees as the small projectile burned his flesh through. He clutched his leg and tried to pull it out.

Sora dodged a few more that managed to pierce the overturned table she was using for cover. "Tai, we have to get out of here!" She screamed.

Agumon broke back through the door and fired his "Pepper breath!" attack. "Get out of here you big ugly thing!" He fired and fired and fired, but it only enraged the digimon further. The Airdramon took a bite at Agumon but Biyomon pulled him back out and fired "Spiral twister!"

"You leave him alone!" She wasn't afraid of this dread dragon either.

Sora and Tai had regrouped behind their digimon. Tai had an arm draped around Sora as she helped him limp around the chaotic apartment. Tai was in pain, but he was already trying to come up with a plan. _If we can flush him out of the gap, then Agumon and Biyomon can take him down in champion form. _

He looked over at the two rookies who kept firing their futile attacks at the angry champion digimon. _They can't make even a dent right now though and I can't risk them getting close enough to that thing._

_If you need them, they will come_

The understanding dawned on Tai's face as he remembered what Shin had said. _I don't have any other options right now. God help me if I mess this up. _He lifted his arm off of Sora's shoulder and ushered her together with the digimon. "Sora…"

"What Tai?" She was hard pressed to see through the dust and smoke. "I'm gonna do something that sounds crazy even to me." She grabbed on to him and refused to let go. "I don't even want you to think about anything stupid right now!"

Tai gently pried her hand off, and looked for Agumon. "Hey buddy, I need you to digivolve as soon as I give the signal." Agumon coughed out to signal where he was. "Ok Tai, but I can't digivolve in here!"

Tai smirked. "It's ok; I'll take care of it." In his mind he was screaming at himself to reconsider. _Well whatever you're going to do, you'd better do it now Tai!_ He took one last look at Sora, who looked worried sick out of her mind at what she could only imagine he was going to do. _Just for good luck….._He kissed her on the cheek and winked. "Wish me luck!"

She didn't get a chance to respond as he barged back through the door as best he could on his bad leg. The beast was writhing around, almost trying to get free, but it roared at Tai. "Come on then ugly! I'm taking you down. "

"Spinning needle!" The dragon fired a barrage straight at Tai, who suddenly found himself wishing he'd thought this through. _Come on! Come on! Where's this fire? _Tai cringed as the air spears closed in on him. _Oh crap! Wait, why's everything moving so….slow?_

All around Tai, things were slowing down to a crawl. He could clearly see the trajectory of the Air spears and even the air flows around them. _Whoa…..cool._ He dodged out of the way of the first one and summoned his katana. _Let's see if I can cut through these!_

The second one flew and Tai swung at it, hitting dead on! The spear split into nothingness. Now only two remained. His digivice blazed with energy, the screen read "Eyes of Greymon-battle sight engaged."

The last two spears neared at the same time, he saw everything. Tai swung again, cutting both of them in half with ease and then whirled back around. "Is that all you got?!" The katana was alive under his grip and he lunged at the dragon with a fierce overhead slash. "Then it's my turn!"

The Airdramon roared in pain as it was forced back out into the sky next to the building. Tai, unfortunately, hadn't realized how much force he put behind the slash as he was sent out of the breach with it. "Oh man!"

He started to plummet, but managed to yell out. "Agumon, now!" Agumon was more than happy to oblige. He ran through the room and jumped out the breach, digivolving as he exited. "Agumon Digivolve to…….Greymon!" The big dinosaur rammed into Airdramon. "Great horns bash!" The horns on his skull opened large gashes on the blue serpentine dragon.

As Tai saw his partner injure the dragon, he smiled, even as he was falling. _I bet the armor was cool…..Go get him Greymon._ As he saw the ground approach, Tai closed his eyes. _Looks like I can't stick around Sora……_

All of a sudden, he felt warmth around his body and he opened his eyes. He was glowing orange and it grew brighter and brighter until it was blinding. "What's going on?" Tai didn't notice that he was close to crashing when he was blinded with the light and he felt impact on his back.

_Oh great….I'm dead. _He found however, that he was able to open his eyes. His vision was slightly more narrow, but it was only obscured by a heavy helmet. _Is this the armor?! _Tai flexed his muscles as he lay on the concrete, able to move just fine after the 7 story fall.

_Well I'm alive at least. _Tai heard clanking as he struggled to get up. _This suit sure is heavy though. _He wore an orange and black version of Shin's dragon armor, with a black bodysuit underneath the armor. Tai stumbled a bit as he stood his full height, unadjusted to the slight weight of the armor, but also unadjusted to falling 7 storied unharmed. He looked back up at where the digimon were battling and Birdramon had joined the battle, talons grasping Greymon's claws as she flew around.

Tai smiled. _Thanks Sora. I guess now it's my turn to get into the mix. _The knight of courage rises to battle!

* * *

Pretty badass right? expect some major beatdown next chapter, and of course if you read it, I'd like it if your reviewed it.


	5. Courage Awakened!

Alright, so this is chapter 5, of the D-Knights story. Story's getting quite epic if you ask me. As for any concerns of updating regularity, I'll keep trying for a weekly weekend update, if it doesn't happen, then rest assured I had something more pressing at hand. as always, editor credits are owed to Takaondo, they make the story a little bit better for keeping any bad tendencies in check. So, I guess that's it. Enjoy!

* * *

Legend of the D-Knights

Chapter 5

Courage awakened!

* * *

Previously Tai and Sora were in Tai's apartment when they were attacked by an Airdramon. Tai tried valiantly to save everyone and even managed to drive the Airdramon out of the gap it had made, but he plummeted to his supposed doom. However, being embraced by the power of his actions and feelings, the seemingly lethal fall was nullified by Tai's new orange and black armor, the knight of courage stands ready!

Tai looked toward the Sky and saw the Airdramon dodging blasts from Greymon and Birdramon. The two had previously been working together more closely, but Tai could imagine that Greymon might be too heavy for Birdramon to keep in the sky too. _Remind me to put him on some kind of diet later. _Tai deadpanned in his head.

He felt the blade pulse under his hand and dashed off in the direction of the battle. _Here goes nothing….._ Tai was caught off guard however when he felt the wind catch under the wings on his back. "Whoa!" He felt himself glide up gracefully toward the battle and marveled at the sights under him. "I have GOT to do this in my free time."

He was a little uneasy for his first time flying by managed to get to the battle just fine, passing the window and catching a glimpse of Sora beside herself. She was on her knees and had her face buried in her hands, crying. He flew closer and managed to hear "Oh Tai, you brave, stupid idiot." sobbed Sora into her hands.

Tai cleared his throat. "You rang?" he said with a slight hint of amusement.

Sora looked up in surprise and then shock. "Tai! What-what are you wearing? You can fly?" She was surprised, but certainly happy to see her old friend alive and well.

Tai gave her a smirk under the mouth plate and a thumbs-up. "Don't worry your pretty little head about it. Right now I have to go take care of this buster!" he turned and took off in the writhing dragon's direction.

Airdramon roared at the two digimon before him. "You meddling pestsssss." It hissed acid in its voice. "I'll eliminate you!"

"Oh yeah! Why don't you just try it?!" Greymon retorted, claw pointed at the Airdramon in a challenge. "That's right! We're not going to let you hurt our partners!" Birdramon added, corkscrewing and ascending in preparation for a dive.

Tai grinned as he stopped in mid-flight. "I guess these two got it in hand."

Greymon reared his head and blew out a large fireball. "Nova blast!" The large fireball whizzed past Airdramon and he laughed at Greymon. "Is that all you got you little dino?" he teased a smirking Greymon.

Tai looked up at Birdramon who was coming hurtling back from the stratosphere.

_Shots fired into the sky, are now returning, where the f*ck will you hide?!!!!_

"Mach grinder!" Birdramon shouted as her claws tore through Airdramon's midsection. The latter gave a shriek of pain. "You miserable little parakeet!"Voice dripping with malice.

Tai flew up next to Greymon's eyes and patted the horned dinosaur on the snout. "Good work Greymon!" Tai said as he sat on his snout.

"Tai! You're ok!" Greymon said excitedly and would have hugged him if it weren't for the fact that Tai was one fourth his size.

"Yeah, I'm ok Greymon. I've had a few….modifications." Tai looked at the dramon destroyers on his arms and laughed nervously. "Maybe I shouldn't be this close with these" he held them up and Greymon nodded slowly.

"I don't need any holes in my helmet, so yeah. Please be careful with those." He noticed the brave shield on Tai's back and quirked an eyebrow. "So what's with the armor? You've got some Wargreymon parts on you there."

Tai nodded, turning the dramon destroyers over and spun in midair in a passable impression of the "Great Tornado" attack. "Well we are partners aren't we?" asked Tai as he chuckled. Greymon smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I'm just glad you're ok."

"Well isn't that just touching? I think I'm gonna puke." The two turned and saw the Airdramon struggling to breathe on the ground, but breathing nonetheless. Birdramon landed next to him in a menacing fashion. "Silence you!" She squawked at him.

The Airdramon winced at the force of her voice, but started laughing maniacally. "You fools have absolutely no idea of what you're toying with!"

Tai's eyes narrowed and he landed a few feet away from Airdramon before walking up to him with a deadly calm. "And I don't really care. You're after me and my friends and that's all I need to know." Tai leveled his Katana at the downed dragon.

Airdramon gave him a wicked smile. "Why don't you let me show you then?!" As he said this he started rising in the air and was enveloped by a ghastly purple light. "Airdramon Dark digivolve too…..Gigadramon!"

Tai flew back to Greymon's side in surprise. "He got to the ultimate level!" Greymon nodded. "But how?" Greymon was suspicious at the dark digivolution.

Birdramon took back to the sky. "I don't know, but we can't sit around doing nothing!" She circled around the new dark dragon and tried to shred him with her talons again. "Mach Grinder!"

She was immediately swatted like a fly. "Away vermin!" Gigadramon sneered.

She hit a nearby building and slid to the ground, wincing in pain. Greymon ran over in concern."Birdramon!"

Before he got to her, he received a gigantic tail swipe to his face, sending him in the opposite direction. "AUGH!" He hit with a decent amount of force and was also winded for the time being. Gigadramon smiled, as best as his twisted mouth could "This is too easy!"

Tai flew over as fast as he could to Greymon. "Greymon, Greymon, are you ok?" He knelt beside his partner who nodded weakly. "I'm alive at least. Tai, he's too strong, take Sora and get out of here!" Greymon pleaded. Tai shook his head. "I'm not gonna leave you or Birdramon!"

Sora looked down from the hole in the building. "Tai, are they alright?!" She shouted over the clamor. Tai looked up and nodded. "Yeah, but they're not strong enough!" He shouted back. Tai looked around at the destruction caused by this battle and knew it had to end fast.

_Why did they have to take the crests back?! We need them now!_

He felt a nudge under his right arm and saw Greymon wanted his attention. "Greymon….." Tai didn't know what to do. Greymon wheezed as he tried to regain his composure. "Tai, we might not be able to digivolve, but you have that power inside of you. You have the courage to end this!" Greymon coughed as he finished.

Tai petted his partner's head. "Sh, don't try to talk buddy, just rest. You did well." Greymon's head slowly lowered back onto the ground. "I believe in you Tai….." was the last thing he said before he closed his eyes and fell unconscious.

Tai's fist clenched and he turned to the maniacally grinning dragon. "I guess that just leaves me….." His eyes started shining orange once again as he opened the power flow through his body. Sora had seen the exchange between the two but didn't hear a word. "Tai, what are we gonna do?" she asked, worriedly.

Tai tossed his blade into his right hand and slowly flew up back to her. "Don't worry Sora; I've got this one covered. I just need you to do one thing…."He smirked as he turned back around.

"What is it?"

Tai's katana was swallowed in fire. "Believe in me…." Were his last words as he charged straight for Gigadramon.

"Let's dance you freak!" Tai shouted as he brought his blade around in shining arcs in a star pattern, firing wave after wave of flame. "Flaming star!" Gigadramon groaned as he was engulfed in flames, but was only left slightly singed. "Nice try little tin man." It cackled.

"No way…"Tai felt he'd put everything into that volley.

The dragon snarled. "My turn! Darkside attack!" he shouted as two missiles fired from his metal claws and headed straight for Tai. Tai moved out of the way fast, but he still saw a smile on the dragon's face.

"What are you smiling at? You missed!" Tai shouted over to the insane beast, who sneered back."No I didn't!" he shouted defiantly, pointing towards Sora.

Tai's eyes widened. "Sora! Run!" He took off back in the direction of the missiles and for a split second, it didn't look like he was going to be able to make it in time. Sora tried to heed his request, but she had nowhere to go. Tai's mind raced. _Just a little more! Just a little more…….._

Tai got to the breach in the apartment just in the nick of time and held the brave shield out, canceling out the missile impact. However, he did not account for the actual blast of the missiles and felt them detonate into flame. _Oh man!_

The flames spread like wildfire with lightning speed toward Sora, but to Tai's eyes, it was reduced to a crawl. Quick as a flash, Tai's reflexes fired off with a god speed impulse, he replaced the brave shield on his back and grabbed Sora in a motion quicker than even he could process. He enveloped her with his arms and was going to fly back out, but he noticed something strange.

The flames were being drawn to him, but not burning him. His armor felt lighter, almost as if…..it was drinking the flames! _The surprises just keep on coming. _He stood there with Sora in his arms, her eyes closed tight , and his armor absorbing the fire.

Outside the Gigadramon was eyeing the smoke, awaiting the screams of pain, but they never came. "What happened?!" it roared.

"Tai made it…." Greymon said as he stood shakily. "All because he believed in himself." Gigadramon whirled on him and reared back to crush him. "Silence!"

He was stopped however, by a volley of small meteors hitting him in the eyes. "AUGH! I can't see!" Birdramon landed next to Greymon and stood ready. "Not only that, Sora believed in him too." She added.

Gigadramon was fuming at this display of apparent insolence. "You worms can't defeat me!" He opened his claws to shoot another pair of missiles at them, but Tai's voice rang out. "Them alone maybe not, but you never count out a goggle-boy!" The smoke cleared and Tai stood triumphantly, Sora standing behind him, completely unharmed!

"NO!" the dragon roared.

"Yes! Tai shouted. "Greymon! Birdramon! Aim at the claw openings!"

"Got it!" Greymon's throat burned as he launched a devastating attack. "Nova blast!"

"Right!" Birdramon's wings shined as a stream of flame of flame poured into the other claw. "Fire flapping!"

"NO!" Gigadramon couldn't believe he was being defeated by two champions and an upstart human! The attacks streamed into the missile ports in his claws and exploded within his body, deleting his arms almost instantaneously. Tai then launched himself at the dragon one final time and brought his Katana about. "Solar Cleave!'

The katana shined as he cleaved the dragon in two. "GRAAAH! This is only the BEGINNING!" those were the final words as he exploded into data. Tai landed and kneeled on the ground where he'd destroyed the dark dragon, panting. "I….I did it…" almost not believing it himself.

Greymon and Birdramon de-digivolved to Agumon and Biyomon and they came running to him. "Tai! Tai! You did it!" Agumon cheered as he threw himself at the surprised brunette. "I'm so proud of you!"Agumon gave his partner a great big hug.

Tai hugged the small digimon in return, chuckling. "Thanks Agumon." Tai sheathed the sword and carried Agumon with one arm as he walked over to Biyomon and extended a hand to the tired bird. "Thanks for saving Agumon's scales back there. Let me give you a lift back up to Sora."

Biyomon nodded and accepted his gesture. "Sure thing Tai, and thanks." She ended very tiredly and fell asleep in his arm as soon as he picked her up. He took off ever so gently as to avoid jostling the two tired digimon and looked down at Agumon as he entered the ruined apartment. "You two did great. Why don't you get some sleep too buddy?"

Agumon nodded and yawned. "That's the best idea you've had all week." He fell asleep on Tai's shoulder and Tai chuckled. "You little joker." Tai was then reminded of Sora's presence as she approached him. "Thank god you guys are ok."

Tai nodded as he gently passed over Biyomon. "Yeah, these two are just exhausted. I suggest we get out of here and get to that meeting." _Maybe I could fly us there……_

Sora nodded. "Yeah, but……"

"What is it?"

Sora thought for a moment as she took all of what just happened in. Not 20 minutes, ago they were discussing their relationship in Tai's room. Now Tai was covered in beautiful orange armor and he had just taken out an ultimate level digimon with only a little help from their digimon. "What…..was….all that?" was all she could manage to ask, even after trying to gather herself.

Tai sighed as he made for the door. "It'll be explained soon; frankly I was just as surprised as you were about everything except the katana and the digimon. Now let's get going, I need to figure out how to get unarmored." He said, inspecting the dully shining equipment.

Sora sweat-dropped as she followed him out. "You mean you don't know how to get unarmored?!" she asked incredulously as she laughed a little bit.

"No…"came Tai's quiet answer.

Sora started giggling incessantly. Tai simply pouted. "You're so not helping." The two got to the street and had to walk the few blocks to get to the school, carrying two snoring digimon and with Tai wearing full armor with a katana strapped to his side. There were enough odd looks directed at them to last a lifetime.

* * *

Meanwhile……Takuya's house

Takuya was currently rolling out of bed at the crack of 11. He was really awoken by the sound of the doorbell and sleepily went over to answer it after a few repeated offenses, completely forgetting he was in nothing but his boxers.

"Alright, alright, hold your horses. This better not be some religious thing." He mumbled the last part as he opened the door….only to see the smiling face of Zoe. "Oh! Zoe! Uh….hi." he said nervously, suddenly feeling a breeze.

Zoe was smiling until she gauged exactly what was going on. "Hi….Takuya." She turned her head away and blushed. "Um, d-d-do you need to put on some c-clothes or something?" She pointed to his only current article of clothing.

Takuya nodded with a sigh. "Yeah, sorry, there was nobody else home when you knocked." He stepped aside and ushered her in. "Here, come in, it's freezing outside."

Zoe giggled as she complied and rolled her eyes. "It's only because you don't have on the proper attire."

Takuya sighed in exasperation as he closed the door. "Would you rather have waited outside? I could still kick you back out you know." He said as he went to retrieve some clothes.

Zoe stuck out her tongue at him playfully. "We would have been gone by now if you'd stopped yapping and put some pants on." She sat on the couch and let out a sight of relaxation, bathing in the warmth of the house. She'd not slept well the night before for some odd reason and her head started drooping a little.

Takuya on the other hand was currently dressing warmly, with a pair of black jeans above some long johns and then an under armor shirt under a red hoodie. _Well that wasn't as embarrassing as it could have been…._ He thought. Takuya put on his cap and goggles, matting down his long and quite unruly hair. _She's looking kinda cute today too. I'm surprised she didn't ridicule the living hell out of me._

Takuya grabbed his cell phone and keys and put on a pair of gloves, walking out of the room. He'd noticed Zoe was oddly quiet and took a peek around the corner as he went into the kitchen. _She's sleeping? _He chuckled to himself. _Now let's see, how should I wake her up?_

He grabbed a bit of coffee cake and some orange juice before he went back out to the living room. _Do I kiss her? _He rolled his eyes. _Hold your horses there Romeo; you don't even know what's going on between her and Kouji. _He downed the orange juice as he sat down next to Zoe, startling her awake.

"Huh, what?" She looked around, momentarily disoriented, until she laid eyes on Takuya's smirking face. "What's that look for?" She furrowed her brow, but her answer was met with half of his piece of coffee cake.

"Here, you look like you could use some sugar." Takuya said, stuffing his piece in his mouth and munching on it hungrily as Zoe accepted her piece with glee. "Ooh, I love this stuff!" She munched on the cake, smiling as she did so.

Takuya shook his head as he smirked. "You're such a goof." Zoe punched him lightly in the arm. "So what if I am?" She smirked right back at him. "Are you ready to get going? I want to see if all of you goggle-boys are the same." She laughed as he rolled his eyes.

Takuya smirked, stood and offered her a hand. "I don't want you to be disappointed honey. I'm your one and only goggle-boy. Let's get going." Zoe took his hand and giggled. "I think you might be the silliest one."

As they stepped out the door, still hand in hand Takuya noted, he locked and then led her down the stairs and they started walking. "I've got some stiff competition, Davis is the joker apparently. Tai's pretty hard headed, Takato's timid and Shin's just slightly crazy." He said as he chuckled at the thought of each one.

Zoe gasped. "So there are 4 other generations that we don't know about?" That was a bit difficult to fathom. Takuya nodded. "Yup, and normally all of them have more than 6 members." He said, pondering what having more than one female to travel with was like.

Zoe quirked an eyebrow. "More girls for them I hope, being the only one with you guys was a bit odd." She smiled at the memories of being around the digimon as well as her boys.

Takuya rolled his eyes. "You can't say you didn't like all the extra attention." He said, as he smirked at her. Zoe tossed her head about, admitting he was right, if only slightly. "Yeah, I guess….." she said as she squeezed his hand unconsciously.

Takuya hadn't really noticed that they had been walking hand in hand for a while now and she hadn't protested. He smiled to himself as he squeezed back. "You know, we did a lot of good…had a lot of laughs…." He said as he saw the train station nearing, becoming a bit nostalgic as he remembered the beginning of his personal adventure.

Zoe nodded. "I almost didn't want it to end….." She was a little misty-eyed. Takuya caught this look and smiled widely at her. "It might be beginning again Zoe." She looked at him in slight wonderment. "What do you mean?" she asked, stopping in her tracks.

Takuya chuckled and tugged her gently along, maintaining his soft grip on her small hand. "Me meeting these guys, it wasn't by chance you know." He said mischievously as he reached his free hand into his pocket, withdrawing the newly restored D-Tector.

Zoe gasped in slight shock. "Is that….?"She stopped short; reaching her free hand to grab it to assure herself it was real. Takuya passed it to her as they passed through the train turnstiles and climbed up to the platform. Zoe turned it over in her hand as they waited for the train, speechless.

Takuya smiled and took it gently back. "I don't even know what you're thinking Zoe, but this is something big." He pulled her in a little closer as he felt the sting of the wind. Zoe wrapped an arm around him, calling his attention to what she was going to say. "I can't help but notice that you're the only one who's got his D-Tector back….."She faded a little at the end, gripping onto him and burying her head in his chest. "Please don't tell me you're going solo on this Takuya."

Takuya hugged her comfortingly as he felt her grab onto him for dear life. "Nah, it's not like that Zoe, me and the goggle-boys, we've got some bigger plans in store." The train pulled up next to them, whipping her hair into both of their faces and Takuya guided her in and sat her down next to him. "We got this Zoe, and I'm gonna do everything I can to make sure this is the last time." He smiled in an assuring manner, as she shook her head in defeat. "Alright Takuya, I don't like it, but I guess I don't have a choice." She said yawning as she tilted her head back on the seat, head drooping already.

Takuya looked out the window and saw that snow was starting to fall lightly on the city like a fine powder. Without looking back at Zoe he said "I guess you don't…." Takuya smirked at her mischievously as he yawned.

Zoe rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms. "Yeah yeah, how far is Odaiba anyway?"She asked, looking at the railway map above the door. Takuya leaned his head back. "About an hour" he said as he started leaning toward her. "And now I'm feeling a little sleepy, thanks a lot."

Zoe giggled a little as he cuddled up to her but couldn't seem to get comfortable. Zoe tried to shift a little too, but it didn't seem to work. After a minute or so she gave up. "So is this where I offer up my lap as a pillow?" she asked, giggling at Takuya's facial expression. "Uh…..really?" he asked, dumbfounded outwardly, but inwardly starting to like the idea.

Zoe smiled warmly and nodded. "Yeah, come on." She patted her lap. "I owe you for waking you up anyway." Takuya smiled nervously and shrugged. "Ok then, if you say it's fine than I'm not gonna say no." He lowered his head and kicked up his feet, adjusting his hat so it didn't jut into her leg. "Is this alright?" he asked, looking up at her with a smirk.

Zoe nodded. "Yeah, that's just fine." she said as she ran a hand through the little bit of hair sticking out of the back of Takuya's hat, teasing it slightly. Takuya smirked and said "maybe you should get some shuteye too." She yawned as he finished and gave him a sleepy "Yeah…."

She leaned her head back and let herself drift off into dreamland, perfectly comfortable with Takuya on her lap. Takuya rolled his eyes. _She must really be tired; maybe I shouldn't be dragging her out to meet these guys. Then again, she did want to come along._ Takuya then remembered that this was almost exactly like that dream he'd had while fighting cherubimon and looked around to see if Kouji or the others were around.

Takuya only saw the look of an elderly woman looking at him and Zoe with a great big smile. Takuya simply smiled nervously back. He sighed in contentment and stared up at the ceiling, mind simply swimming in good feelings._ The things I want to tell you Zoe, if only I could sum them up…._ All of a sudden, the sounds of daft punk's "Something about us." filled his ears. Someone near them was blasting it out of an mp3 player with speakers.

_It might not be the right time  
I might not be the right one  
But there's something about us I want to say  
Cause there's something between us anyway_

Takuya bobbed his head to the music and closed his eyes, simply enjoying the train ride. _I don't know if I could say, but there's something between us Zoe. _A smirk played at his lips as he continued his musings for the train ride. "Sweet dreams Zoe…." He whispered.

* * *

Meanwhile, while Takuya was having the time of his life, Davis and Veemon were making their way to the meeting…..

Davis strolled with his hands in his pockets, warm, visible air streaming from his mouth. Veemon was in a small coat, because this type of weather was dangerous for reptilian creatures. Veemon shivered. "So why did you call this meeting Davis?" he asked, teeth chattering slightly.

"There are some new things we gotta talk about Veemon." said Davis. The blue dragon wasn't satisfied with that answer. "Like what? Come on, tell me. "Begged Veemon, his breath coming out in clouds.

Davis chuckled at his partner's antics. "Tell me Veemon, did you feel any different yesterday?" asked Davis, looking up the street at the Kamiyas' residence complex. He saw no signs of movement and kept moving. _She's probably already over at the school, what is there left to say anyway?_

_Maybe you could apologize? _ His conscience asked sarcastically. Davis shooed it away. _She knows I don't normally do things like that, right? _Davis was so caught up in thought that he didn't notice Veemon stop at the crosswalk and kept going.

Veemon's mouth gaped. "Davis, what are you doing?!" Davis's head cocked up and he didn't know where he was. "Huh?" he looked around until he came face to face with a car barreling down on him.

*HONK*

"Oh crap!" Davis threw himself back onto the pavement as the car missed him.

*HOOOoooooonk*

As it left, Veemon checked on Davis, who was clutching the pavement for dear life. Davis panted lightly, adrenaline coursing through his veins after his near brush with death. Veemon walked briskly over and helped Davis to his feet. "Are you ok Davis?" the blue digimon asked, clearly concerned at this dangerous behavior.

Davis shook his head out, trying to fully comprehend that he'd very nearly been street pizza. He gulped slightly and got to his feet. "Davis?" he heard. He looked down at Veemon who still had an eyebrow quirked at him. Davis's face was only in shock for another second more before he laughed nervously. "Hehe, sorry, I guess I was daydreaming."

Veemon rolled his eyes. "That figures." He put his claws on his hips in a mock impersonation of Davis's mom. "Watch where you're going mister!" Davis was dumbfounded, if only for a second before he started cracking up.

"Hahahaha, Cut it out Veemon, she does it just like that!" Davis managed to wheeze out between fits of laughter. Veemon was delighted in making his partner laugh and laughed along with him as they continued their journey once the light changed.

* * *

However, there was something waiting for them at the meeting ground that would more than likely halt their merry making. Kari tapped her foot as she looked at her watch. _Noon already, where is everybody?_ Kari had arrived and only saw Izzy and Tentomon waiting for her and Gatomon.

Izzy told her that Tai was taking care of something important and would be along later, So Kari waited at the gate for either TK or Davis to show up, seeing as how neither walked her to school. She normally walked to school with both because TK was in the same building and Davis was in the opposite direction so he would meet them on the way.

Gatomon shivered slightly, pacing in front of the school, she wasn't happy being out in the cold and with snow possibly imminent. She tugged on Kari's pant leg. "Kari, when can we get out of here? I think my hairballs are turning into snowballs."

Kari smiled warmly at Gatomon. "Tai and Davis called us here, so it's gotta be important. Just be patient." Kari giggled slightly at the cat digimon huffed and shivered. She kept looking towards Davis's house, more than she actually cared to notice. Her wait finally paid off as she saw a pair of floppy ears perched on top of a white hat.

TK was strolling toward her with Patamon lying on top of his head. She saw Patamon whisper something into TK's ear, but obviously couldn't hear it. TK nodded and Patamon launched off of his head and glided safely down to the feet of the two ladies. "Hi Kari, Gatomon!" he said cheerfully.

Gatomon grinned at the little rookie's enthusiasm. "Hey Patamon, how's it going?"

Kari nodded. "Hello Patamon."

Patamon bowed to Kari before answering Gatomon. "It's going ok, I'm freezing out here! My ears have icicles on them!" He shouted slightly, showing one too her, said ear being coated with very sharp icicles. Gatomon reached a hand to touch it, and immediately regretted it as all she received was a sharp prick. "Ouch" she said as she recoiled.

Patamon sighed. "Told you." He said.

TK walked up behind him chuckling. "I told you to stop showing those things off, now look, you cut Gatomon." He said pointing to the very superficially injured digimon, scolding in a mocking tone. Patamon shrunk slightly, but was relieved as TK simply laughed. "Why don't you two go see if you can take care of that on the playground? Kari and I have some things to talk about."

Gatomon eyed him suspiciously before looking at Kari questioningly. Kari simply nodded and Patamon grabbed Gatomon by the paw and ushered her in, in a little rougher fashion than he actually thought. Gatomon pulled her claw out of Patamon's mouth. "AY! Patamon, you're too rough!"

Patamon looked almost cutely remorseful. "I'm sorry Gatomon, I just wanted to help you." He said ashamedly. Gatomon laughed nervously and waved it off. "It's alright; I don't even think that it's that big a deal." She said, inspecting her paw as she walked over to Izzy.

TK rolled his eyes as he focused on Kari. "Hey Kari, you're looking well." He said, smiling timidly. Kari was drawing small circles on the ground with her foot. "Thanks TK, how are you?" she asked, hopefully not in for a shouting match.

TK shrugged and leaned on the wall next to her. "Not all that great to be honest, Kari." He said, cocking one eye in her direction as her nerves grew. "TK…about yesterday…I"

"I know Kari." He said, but crossed his arms and looked at her with a mix of sadness and yet a slight amount of hope. She met his eyes and noted his body language before continuing. "Are you mad at me?" she asked, bottom lip in a slight pout.

TK shook his head with a sigh. "No Kari, I couldn't be over something like this. I just want to talk about what happened. In fact, I thought you were mad at me." He said, stepping slightly closer. Kari didn't inch away. "Why would I be mad at you?" she asked, trying to piece together what had happened.

"Davis and I came in fighting and I'm sorry I acted like that, but Davis tackled me!" TK half shouted. Kari gasped slightly. "Davis wouldn't just tackle you! He's your friend." She said, although, she wasn't too certain at the moment anymore.

TK nodded. "He did Kari, all because I wanted to ask you out." He stepped up to her and took one of her hands in his. "I know you're not sure about whom you want to be with, but Kari; I'm just gonna say it. I really, really care about you."

Kari was in slight shock and her breath caught in her throat. The chain around her neck however, felt slightly heavy after his admission. Kari had forgotten she'd put Davis's gift on this morning. "TK, I care about you too but….."

His eyes met hers and all she could focus on was the clear blue of his irises. TK was captivated in her amber ones as he drew nearer, licking his lips in anticipation as he bent down. Kari instinctively got on her tiptoes and as their faces drew closer, she found that she couldn't control herself anymore. Never in TK's wildest dreams could he have envisioned the moment when their lips met.

Tender, warm, soft, almost childish are what described this innocent kiss between old friends. Time stood still for those two, but something else stood still for Davis, who had come within view and now stood frozen at the street corner, his heart.

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Yeah, epic and heavy, that's pretty much how I want this story to go,but at least Takuya got lucky! lol, please r+r


	6. Clash of the digidestined

Alright, here's chapter 6, sorry it wasn't faster, but you know how it is. I'll do what I can to get this done in a timely fashion, but rest assured I'll make it the best quality that I can. So r+r please.

* * *

Legend of the D-Knights

Chapter 6

Clash of the digidestined

* * *

Davis's heart had officially jumped into his throat and beat its last beat. He had turned the corner and got a full view of the soft, tender kiss currently being shared by Kari and TK. Veemon had stopped in his tracks too. "Davis….."

He looked up at his partner with worry filled eyes, but saw a sad smile. _Alright, here we go…._ The blue dragon thought. Davis on the other hand, could only think _Oh hell._

It seemed like an eternity that his two friends stood there, but it was just one little kiss. The two parted and Davis's legs still felt no closer to moving than they had when he'd stopped. Luckily, Shin was coming around the corner whistling a happy tune, gravely contrasting the current situation at hand.

He stopped whistling once the two got into within line of sight and instinctively armored up. _I'm gonna scare the crap out of this kid. _Shin licked his lips as he felt the familiar armor padding surround and cradle his body. Whipping the shopping bag full of food over his shoulder, he cocked an eye over to Ryudamon, who'd gone rigid and wild-eyed.

"Easy buddy, we're just going to scare him a little bit. Put on the best rough face you got." Shin smiled through the mouth plate.

Ryudamon simply nodded. "Check."

TK had opened his eyes after kissing Kari and heard a steady 'clanking' sound. "What the….?" He peeked over her shoulder and saw the four behind her, a frozen Davis, a frowning Veemon, a small dragon behind them, walking with an armored figure! "Davis, look out!"

Kari turned "Huh?"

Davis almost turned but felt a friendly arm thrust over his shoulder, a friendly and metal arm. "Just follow my lead and we'll get out of this without a problem. Ok Davis?" he heard whispered into his ear. Davis felt an edge in Shin's voice, but nodded.

Shin patted him in the shoulder supportively and smiled at the other two. "Oh, don't mind us, just catching up!" he laughed heartily and ushered Davis into the schoolyard. "Isn't that right Davis?"

Davis chuckled. "Yeah, that's right. Now, got any chips in that bag of yours?" he pointed to the large sack behind the armored goggle-boy.

Shin laughed again. "Yeah, I got you covered." He pointed at Davis jokingly to the other two. "This kid is like a garbage disposal."

TK chuckled nervously while Kari just looked curiously at the newcomer. _He seems kinda strange….._

As the two passed them and went into the schoolyard Davis waved at them weakly. "I'll see you guys in a minute."

Kari feebly reached a hand out. "But…."

It was to no avail however as she had to move out of the way of the two digimon lugging another large sack with them. "Excuse me miss." A small, rough voice, followed by "Hello TK, Kari" greeted Veemon as he and Ryudamon passed by.

TK stepped back as he let the two pass and quirked an eyebrow at the retreating armored figure, he heard Izzy ask "Where have you been? And why are you cavorting around in full armor?!"

Shin chuckled. "Official business Izzy, don't worry about it."

TK rolled his eyes. "What's going on around here?"

Kari shook her head. "I don't know, but…." She took his hands in hers. "We've gotta talk."

"Ahem!"

The two were startled out of their hand contact by another sound behind them. There was another person in armor, orange armor! He was also cradling Agumon gently. "Is there something I should be aware of?" he quirked an eyebrow at Kari. "Well little sister?"

"Is that you Tai?!"

A redhead popped out from behind him. "Don't forget about me!"

"Sora!" the two younger digidestined exclaimed happily.

Tai nodded. "Mm-hmm, now, if you don't mind, I need to ask my new friend over there" he pointed at Shin with his free armored hand "how to get back to normal."

"Uh, sure thing Tai." TK chuckled nervously as he let Tai march past him with Sora in tow. However the last fact was a bit surprising to TK. _Wasn't Sora with my brother today?_

He looked back in after them and saw Shin laughing at Tai's gestures. Admittedly the two were a little intimidating in full plate armor. The fact that the helmets covered everything but their eyes probably didn't help his uneasiness.

"Uh, Kari?"

"Yeah TK?"

"Maybe we….shouldn't talk about this right now…." He scratched his head nervously. Kari rolled her eyes. "What are you afraid of? My brother's not going to do anything to you."

TK sighed. "Yeah, but that other guy's not easing my nerves any…"

Kari nodded. "Ok, well…." She stroked the side of his face a little. "I guess we'll pick up on this later." She abruptly removed her hand and started walking towards the group, but paused. "Oh an one more thing, not bad TK." She smirked playfully at him before continuing on her way.

TK stood there in the cold, heart palpitating rapidly. "Whoa….."

With the rest of the group, the atmosphere wasn't as loving as it had been with TK and Kari, but at least there wasn't any hostility. Tai was detailing his fight with Gigadramon in fine detail, as well as waving his arms around because he himself still couldn't believe it.

"…And then, he launches these two missiles out of his hands and I get out of the way. He wasn't aiming at me though, that crafty jerk was aiming at Sora." He pointed over to her and she nodded. Shin shook his head incredulously.

Tai nodded as his shoulders sagged. "I had 4 seconds tops to get to where she was. I also had to put away my sword and pull off my wings too." He motioned to them and shook his shoulders as Shin cracked a smile. "Tai, that's amazing!"

Davis nodded in agreement as he walked all around Tai examining his armor. "For real Tai, that's some crazy stuff." Davis cocked an eye over to Shin's armor and then back at Tai's. "Hey, did you guys notice that your armors are really different?"

Tai stopped for a second and inspected himself as well as Shin. On Shin's feet were a pair of rocket boosters and his overall design was sleeker than Tai's, more aerodynamic, however, he also had what resembled the Burning Gundam's rocket pack and wings on his back. Tai was a carbon copy of Wargreymon, probably suited more for incredibly close hand to hand combat.

Tai nodded. "You're right Davis. What gives Shin?"

Shin thought for a moment. "Well, how can I put this……..We sure as hell couldn't all be Wargreymon copies, no offense, but we also have different fighting styles."

Davis crossed his arms in frustration. "I hope this isn't going to be another lecture Shin."

Shin rolled his eyes dismissively. "I'll give you a full lecture later just for that…." His eye twitched as Davis sweat-dropped. "Oh joy."

Those assembled laughed at Davis's reaction and TK and Kari soon joined the group. "What are we all laughing at Davis for?" TK asked as he approached.

Residual chuckles escaped Patamon. "Just Davis Being Davis."

TK chuckled a little too. "Guess nothing's changed huh Davis?"

This statement rubbed Davis the wrong way just a little bit. _I wouldn't exactly say all that TK….._ He thought. He didn't voice the obvious, but instead "Yeah, I guess not…"

He chuckled weakly, but Shin and Tai picked up on it. Shin looked over at Ryudamon and pointed at the small dragon's sack full of food. Ryudamon smiled widely and dove right into the sack, flipping it over and making it move ridiculously.

Veemon ran over and opened the end of the bag so he could see inside. "What do you have here?" Ryudamon threw a sandwich into Veemon's mouth and downed a 2 liter of root beer. "Entertainment." The crimson dragon said as he tossed a football out at him too.

Veemon caught the sandwich in his mouth effortlessly, but Ryudamon threw the football a little too forcefully and while he caught that too, he fell on his butt and Ryudamon jumped out of the bag laughing hysterically. "Klutz."

Agumon chuckled at his successors' display. Gatomon rolled her eyes in amusement at Veemon's goofiness. Biyomon flapped over and landed right next to his head and pointed at the football. "What's that for?"

Ryudamon picked it up, tossed it and caught it again. "I thought we could have a little fun, heads up!" he chucked it at her but she ducked "Wah! Hey!"

Agumon ran over and dived onto the ball. Veemon followed suit screaming "Digimon football!" and landed on top of Agumon. Ryudamon laughed loudly and jumped on the pile. Patamon charged in as fast as his little legs could carry him. "Banzai!"

The digidestined were laughing at this display and Biyomon was standing next to Gatomon with her feathers ruffled. "They're such boys!" she said giggling. Gatomon smirked "Oh, have a little fun once in a while." She said as she leapt into the fray, leaving Biyomon stunned, but amused.

Veemon squirted out of the pile with the ball and took off running. All the others quickly scrambled out, but he already had a bit of a head start, Gatomon was the only one fast enough to catch up and cut him off. "Where do you think you're going?" she asked teasingly.

Veemon skidded to a stop and tried to make a cut but she tackled him easily and knocked the ball loose. "Ah! Mercy!" he laughed as she clamped down on him.

The ball bounced and Ryudamon picked it up and ran the other way. "Can't touch this!" Unfortunately he ran right into Agumon's grasp and was hammered for it. "Gotcha!"

"Crap!" Ryudamon was tossed onto the ground and the ball came out again, but this time Patamon tried to come away with it. He picked it up on his ears and started running around, albeit, a tad slower than the rest.

Veemon had escaped Gatomon's embrace and sprinted after the small digimon. "Gimme that ball!" he shouted, laughing maniacally as he chased Patamon down. Gatomon, speedy as ever, cut Patamon off "No, I want that ball!"

Patamon stopped on a dime and jumped, leading Gatomon and Veemon to lunge and collide with each other. "Ow! Good job Veemon!" Gatomon said sarcastically.

"Man and I thought MY head was Hard!" laughed Veemon as he rubbed his aching skull. Gatomon feigned an indignant look, but then pounced on him. "It is!" she laughed as she tickled him relentlessly as payback to the hard head insult. Veemon squirmed and laughed like a madmon. "Hahaha cut it out!"

"Never!" she said in a mock villain voice.

Patamon ran the other way with the ball so he didn't see this happening, but when he looked back to see if they were chasing him, he'd gotten full view of it. Veemon was kicking and laughing and Gatomon was giggling her head off because Veemon was tickling her too. He slowed down as he saw this, finding their behavior a bit odd, but, unfortunately for him, Agumon and Ryudamon had keyed in on him.

"Charge!" Ryudamon shouted as the two crashed on Patamon at the same time. Poor Patamon was squashed with the ball. In the resulting heap, both Agumon and Ryudamon reached and grasped the ball and both ran off with something tucked under his arm. Unfortunately Ryudamon had mistaken Patamon for the football based on size and shape.

He ran back to the bags of food and did a celebratory dance. "Touchdown!" he shouted triumphantly before spiking Patamon into the ground. "OUCH!" groaned the little digimon as his face was interred. Agumon did a double take, looking at the football in his hands and then back at the planted Patamon. "Um…Ryudamon…." He held the ball up and pointed to it.

Ryudamon looked at Patamon and then at the football clearly in Agumon's claw and lost a bit of color. "Oh……OH! Uh…..Patamon?" he nudged him with his foot a little, but the only reaction he got was Patamon collapsing into a heap, knocked out. "Ooh, that isn't pretty….." Ryudamon chuckled nervously.

The laughter of Gatomon and Veemon still echoed across the field as they were still in the throes of their tickle fight. Ryudamon smiled a little to himself. _Good thing he's got her occupied…._

Shin smacked his forehead. _Ryudamon does not know the meaning of subtlety, although, hell, I'm a pretty blunt person to begin with….._

Davis was holding back some laughter as Ryudamon's face was priceless. TK was mortified. "Patamon!" he ran over to his downed partner and picked him up gently. "Patamon speak to me!" he shook the little digimon a little but the only response he got was "Five more minutes, mommy….."

TK sweat-dropped. "I think he's ok…."

Agumon shook his head as he tossed the ball up and down, walking toward Biyomon. "Well that puts a damper on things."

Biyomon scoffed. "Well what did you expect, all you guys just tackled each other. It didn't seem like fun…"

Agumon chuckled. "Well, you should have joined in; you could have thrown the ball around instead of running it."

Biyomon shuffled her feet. "I…..don't know how to throw it well…." She looked away and gained a little blush as Agumon gave her a toothy grin. "Here, do you want me to teach you?" he asked, taking her wing and putting the football in it.

She giggled. "Well….alright."

Tai shook his head. "I hope that's all the excitement we're getting today. I'm getting too old for this." He chuckled as he flexed his shoulders, and leant up against a tree, armor creaking slightly. Davis nodded. "Yeah, you are…"

The group shared a laugh as Tai lunged as Davis. "I'll get you for that!" he shouted, laughing at the younger goggle boy's antics. Davis yelped and dodged before easily outrunning Tai. "Nya nya can't catch me!"

Tai lumbered as fast as he could in his armor, but was a few steps slower than Davis. Davis just ran a few circles around him before he called "Alright, Peace!" with his hands up in front of his face in defense. The group was in stitches at the two goggle-boys running around, but Shin just chuckled to himself quietly. _That Davis is a speedy one…._

Slowly but surely the digidestined made their way to the meeting, exchanging small pleasantries, and were slightly frightened by Shin and Tai's armor forms. When Matt entered the schoolyard, the D-Knights assembled could feel it get just a notch colder, almost unnoticeable to normal humans.

Shin shivered as his teeth chattered in his mouth plate. _I hate the cold……_

Tai approached Matt with relative calm, but it wasn't a cover for anger or hatred, Tai was just hurt. He extended a hand to Matt who shook it with a small amount of surprise. "Tai I-"

Tai shook his head. "Not here Matt, maybe some other time, but I don't want a scene." Matt nodded, but grinned a little. "I guess you're right…"

Tai nodded. "Yeah, you know how it is…" he and Matt fist bumped. "Still good to see you buddy." Said Tai

Matt nodded. "Yeah…. So why'd Davis call this meeting?"

Tai thought for a second. "You know, I think he'd rather tell you himself. But uh, it has to do with that other fool in armor over there." Tai jerked a thumb at Shin who waved at Matt casually.

Matt sighed. "I hate mysteries…..alright, get on with it. I'll…be over with Sora."

Tai nodded and Matt did as he said. _I want to be the one with Sora Matt…..but is that fair? _Tai exhaled deeply as he jerked his gaze over to Shin who was scanning the group assembled with an unreadable expression.

Davis hugged his arms, trying to warm himself up; the cold was getting to him. "Dude, when can we start this thing?! I'm freezing!"

Shin extended a hand and it combusted into flame. "Here, quit being a baby and warm yourself up. We're still short two people I think."

Tai quirked an eyebrow as he took a head count. Joe, Izzy, Matt, Sora, Kari, TK, Cody, Yolei, Ken and Mimi, who had come back to Japan for college, were all sitting there, along with Davis and Tai, which was all the first two generations. "What are you talking about Shin? There's 12 of us here, not including our digimon and that's all the people Davis texted."

Shin nodded. "Yeah, but, I'm still waiting on two others….." he craned his neck toward the gate and spotted a yellow cap and grey goggles. "See for yourself." He nodded in Takuya's direction.

The other two followed his line of sight and their jaws dropped when they caught sight of Zoe. Takuya was leading her along by the hand and she was blushing slightly, obviously nervous to be walking into a strange group of people. "Takuya, wait a second…."

"What is it?"

"I'm…a little nervous. What if they don't like me?"

Takuya smiled warmly as he stopped just short of the gate and turned to her. Cupping her face in his hands he leaned in close. "Hey now, you can't tell me you're scared of a bunch of digidestined."

Zoe huffed, but didn't turn away. "A little bit."

Takuya let his hands drop to hers and he brought them up to about shoulder level. "You're over thinking this. Remember how you thought none of us liked you?"

Zoe nodded bashfully. "Yeah…"

Takuya winked at her. "Look how wrong you were…."

Zoe giggled and stepped a bit closer, eyes taking a slightly flirty look. "And how wrong was I?" she asked teasingly.

Takuya would have stammered something out, but didn't feel nervous about what he was about to do. Already inches apart, he just went with the flow and tilted his head closer and she followed suit. As soon as their lips touched, both hearts soared to incredible heights. Takuya's insides felt like they were on fire.

Zoe's system was also in quite the rage. Truly she had never been kissed with this much affection by anyone she knew and she loved every second of it. The two stayed like that for a minute or so, completely unaffected by the cold weather. The heat of their emotions was overwhelming.

They heard a "Hey, lovebirds! Quit smooching, we got an announcement to get to!" Shin called from across the field.

Takuya parted first, grudgingly and breathless. "I think we should get this over with first. And then…we can do our own thing."

Zoe nodded and grinned. "Alright."

Takuya pecked her lips once more before he led her into the schoolyard. The other digidestined had been wondering who Shin called but their questions were answered by the appearance of a brunette young man leading in a blushing blonde.

"Hi everybody!" greeted Takuya.

There were murmurs of confused hellos and the like and Takuya turned his gaze over to the two armored digidestined and Davis. "Hey guys!" he waved.

The other three greeted him warmly and Shin cocked his head over at Zoe. "Is this the one you were telling us about?" he asked in slight amusement.

Zoe stiffened up, a little intimidated by the warrior. Takuya however, pushed her forward "Yeah, I'd like you to meet Zoe. Zoe, meet Davis, Tai and Shin." He gestured to his comrades and she shook their hands.

"Good to meet you all."

"Same here." Said Tai

"Ditto." Greeted Davis

"The pleasure's all ours." Shin bowed politely.

Zoe smiled at the warm reception and then turned to face the confused digidestined and she was still slightly unnerved, until she saw all the digimon. "Oh! They're all so cute!" she squealed as she ran over to Ryudamon and Agumon, completely blowing past the digidestined and picking up Agumon. "What's your name little guy?"

Agumon chuckled nervously. "Agumon ma'am and uh, could you not jump around so much? I might lose my lunch."

Zoe giggled. Ryudamon huffed "I'm cute too and you picked him up."

Zoe put Agumon down and then picked up Ryudamon. "I'm sorry, you're cute too!" she placed him on the ground and started scratching his belly, making the draconian digimon as tame as a puppy. "Ooh, that feels SOOOO good!"

Shin smacked his forehead. "Ryudamon….have some self-control…"

The three other D-knights laughed at him, as did the rest of the digidestined. Tai shook out the residual chuckles to introduce the other two. "Ok, enough poking fun at these two….." he gestured to Davis and Shin, with indignant looks on their faces. "Before we get down to business, this is Takuya, and that blonde friend of his is Zoe."

The group raised a more cheerful hello this time around. Takuya waved back sheepishly, but Zoe was too busy cooing over the digimon to notice and Takuya simply shook his head chuckling. Tai rolled his eyes. "Right, uh, Takuya, that's Matt, Sora, Izzy, Joe, Mimi, TK, Kari, Ken, Cody and Yolei." Tai pointed each of them out and Takuya nodded to each one.

Shin tapped his foot impatiently before he decided to speak up. "Ok, we'll put interruptions on hold for now; we gotta get this done so we can all be on our merry way…" he said sarcastically.

"Jeez, rude much?" asked Mimi in the background.

Shin just groaned. "Whatever. Now all of you listen up!" he practically screamed, ending any chatter amongst them. Tai groaned"Jeez, shoot somebody why don't you?"

Davis leant against a tree and braced himself for what was to come.

Shin waited a moment for everyone to be silent before continuing. "All of you are in grave danger……" he looked around at the quieted faces. "This goes beyond anything you've ever faced before and I don't want innocent blood on my hands!"

He pointed between himself and Tai. "I'm sure you're all wondering what all this is about….." he breathed in deeply. "The digital world has called us into service again…..there's a new enemy."

Matt bolted up. "I don't care who they are, we've stopped all others before, right gang?"

"Right!" The chorus replied.

Shin shook his head and sighed. "You have…but this time, your power won't be enough……"

Davis shivered as his words saddled onto his shoulders.

"What are you saying?" asked Sora.

"What I'm saying is that only we, the D-knights, can stop it this time around."

The group muttered in discontent. Kari shouted "we can help you!"

Shin shook his head again. "I told you I won't have innocent blood on my hands again!"

The group recoiled, but Tai cast a concerned look at the younger goggle-boy. _Again?_

"Too many have died already trying to stop this nameless face. It makes the enemies you've fought look like chumps!"

Takuya tightened his fists; his legs were shaking a little. _What could be that awful?_

Shin continued. "The ones who represent courage in each of our respective groups was gifted with a Katana. "He held his up and summoned flame unto it, quite a showy demonstration. "As of right now, with most of your digimon limited to champion or armor forms, you stand no chance of even registering on the enemy's radar."

TK gritted his teeth. "And what makes you guys so special huh?!"

Shin resisted the urge to strike him down, but visibly tensed his jaw. "It may shock you to learn that I've had to traverse the digital word in search of the blade of courage……I nearly died for it!"

TK huffed and sat back down. "Show off."

Shin disregarded it. "The sword was made from the essence of the crest of courage and was one of the 6 legendary artifacts in the digital world."

Ken chimed in. "Where did these artifacts come from? From what I remember, the first digidestined gave up their crests to shield the digital world."

Shin nodded. "You're right Ken, but the crests' power wasn't solely kept around the digital world, focus points were created. The artifacts were scattered across the digital world and were integral in keeping it safe."

"Were?"Asked Kari.

"Yeah, WERE. Somehow, the artifacts embodying sincerity, knowledge and reliability were completely destroyed by agents of that tyrant. Three were left, the swords of love, friendship and courage. I couldn't say for sure if any other crests had enough power to be made into artifacts on their own."

Davis's mind started churning at this "So where are the other two?"

Shin shook his head. "I knew who wielded them. I couldn't even tell you if they're alive or dead."

A heavy air sat around the assembled chosen children. Tai scanned the group's faces to discern what each one was thinking. Kari's face was near tear-stricken, Sora was in shock. Matt, well, he didn't look happy to say the least.

Takuya gazed concernedly at Zoe, who had latched onto his arm when Shin started explaining what the swords were. _I know Zoe….I'm a little scared too._

Davis's breaths were coming out in short, ragged puffs. He made no eye contact with anyone and kept his head low, staring at the ground intensely. The weight of all that Shin had said sat heavily on his shoulders.

_Kari, Ken…..everyone……I won't fail._

Ken stood up, taking a good long look at Davis "Are you sure about this Davis?"

Davis didn't say anything for a solid minute, but then looked at his old friend reassuringly. "I am Ken, as sure as I've been about the most serious things in my life……" his eyes flashed over at Kari for the briefest of moments, but then back to Ken's, who seemed to understand.

"And you Tai?" asked Sora.

Tai looked over his armor. Gleaming in the fading sunlight, he knew it was just for him and his reasons for wearing it were right before him. "I'm with Davis on this one. If it weren't for this power Sora, we might not be here right now…. We also don't know what's causing stuff like 'dark digivolution' to happen."

Matt was curious. "What's he talking about Sora?"

"I'll tell you later Hon."

Tai flinched a little at this, although it was largely unnoticed. Shin placed his Katana back in the sheath and then took off his helmet to show the digidestined that they could trust him. "I know this is all not to your liking, but it's necessary. This will probably be the last great battle of your lifetimes. I'll be taking these three and Takato to the digital world for training. I need them free from distractions……." He looked around at certain people of note in that category. "I think that's all that needs to be said. Tai, Davis, Takuya, you guys let me know when you're-"

"We're ready now" interrupted Davis.

Shin was slightly taken aback, but nodded. "Very well." He turned to the group, which was still reeling from his words "I guess we'll be going now…..Don't worry though, I'll keep them alive."

"Veemon."

"Agumon."

"Ryudamon."

The three called in succession followed their partners out of the gate, leaving many stunned digidestined in their wake.

"So long, I guess. Nice meeting you all." Waved Takuya as he grabbed Zoe's hand and led her out. "See ya!" she said. As soon as they were out of the gate and around the wall, Zoe slipped her hand out of Takuya's abruptly.

"What's wrong Zoe?" Takuya was still in a slightly shaken up about what just happened. When he turned around to face her, he noticed tears streaming down the sides of her face.

"How could you…..How could you not tell me how dangerous this was?!" she slapped him clear across the face in one swift movement.

Takuya stumbled back, grasping his smarting cheek. "Ah! Jeez, what the…." He stopped mid-sentence because when he wanted to reprimand her, he saw that she already looked defeated. "Zoe…..I…."

She dropped her hands and slowly walked into his chest, resting her head there. "I don't want you to go….but I know I can't ask you to stay….."

Takuya hesitated for a second, but then enveloped her with his arms. "It's alright Zoe. We had those elemental powers in the digital world for a reason. Fire needs wind to survive…..don't you see Zoe?"

He lifted her chin so he could make eye contact. "You give me strength. Believe in me and I'll fight to the end of the earth, I promise……"

* * *

Yeah, Takumi already, should have seen that a chapter ago lol. I'll let you in on a little secret (they're the easiest to right without drama or depression!). Anyway, please r+r if you have the time, peace


	7. Knight and Flame

Ok peeps, here's chapter 7! and it's actually been only a week! amazing huh? well I might not keep up the consistency these next two weeks, finals and the like. Ugh, you know how it is, anyway, please r+r and enjoy!

* * *

Legend of the D-knights

Chapter 7

Knight and Flame

* * *

The meeting had ended with a crushing atmosphere among digidestined and digimon alike. Davis felt like his heart had been turned to lead and simply walked out of there with Veemon in tow. Tai and Shin walked directly behind the two, still sporting their full armaments. Tai however, was unaccustomed to it.

"Shin, can I please take this suit off?!"

Shin looked Tai up and down as they walked, but simply shook his head. "You need to get stronger, so I'd suggest getting used to that."

Tai's eye twitched as his aching body creaked. "You must be out of your mind!" he plopped down onto the cold concrete and started taking off his armor piece by piece. "First you get us involved in this big mess, and it's going to be insanely hard and secondly, you expect us to just listen to you!" Tai stared furiously at him as he pawed at his gauntlets and wings.

Shin just leaned against a wall next to him, shaking his head. Agumon picked up Tai's helmet, the only part he'd managed to get off and held it up to him. "Come on Tai, we all need to work together."

"He's right Tai."

Takuya knelt down next to him and handed him the helmet." If we don't do this together, we can kiss all of this goodbye." Gazing over to Zoe, his eyes flashed. "I'm not ready to do that just yet."

Zoe smiled at him warmly. "Me neither."

Shin started walking again. "Well then, let's do it, there's work to be done." He looked ahead, but noticed that Davis had left the group in the dust after Tai's little episode. "Oh damn it. Where did Davis go?"

Tai also noted his absence and was slightly concerned. "I dunno man, how would you feel if a girl you really cared about kissed your best friend?"

Shin shivered at the question, but then laughed. "Well I'm a violent person, there'd be something blowing up I can tell you, but this isn't me we're talking about."

Tai groaned "You know, I'm not even sure who we're talking about anymore; let's just get to my Parents' place. We need to get some supplies, like food"

"Hey guys?"

The two stopped and looked at Takuya.

"What about Takato?"

Shin scratched his chin thoughtfully. "I don't know actually. We definitely need to tell him, but with a lot less force than I just did." He smirked at the couple. "Why don't you two both go fill him in?"

Zoe was a little taken aback. "Why us?"

Shin started pushing them in the other direction, despite protests from both. "Maybe seeing you two together will motivate the kid." He chuckled. "Just keep the smooching down to a minimum."

The two blushed for a moment, but they were smiling.

Ryudamon had sat down waiting for all this meaningless conversation to play out, just started breathing fire out of boredom into the air. He glanced over at Agumon who was simply watching his display. "You know Agumon; I could totally go for something roasted right now."

Agumon's mouth watered. "Chicken…"

"MMMMM" the both drooled in unison.

Tai sweat-dropped. "We just ate!"

Takuya laughed at the digimons' antics, as did Zoe. "Alright, we'll be getting over to Takato's, which is where exactly?" Takuya looked around, but he wasn't familiar with that area. Shin handed him a piece of paper. "Here, I think that's the right address, if you get lost, his number is on there too."

"Alright, now when do you want us ready to go?"

"We've got a lot to do to get you guys prepared, so tomorrow night I want everybody ready, depressed or not." He looked over at Tai, who simply waved him off "You suck."

Shin sighed. "You'll be thanking me by the end of this Tai, so stop acting like a child. Anyway Takuya, just be careful, apparently there's been digimon activity in the area and you're still inexperienced, not to mention you've got this fine young lady to protect now" he gestured to Zoe, who nodded gratefully.

Shin smiled. "Yeah……so I guess I'll see you tomorrow Takuya, right back here." They shook hands and Shin tipped his helmet "Ma'am good to meet you."

Zoe bowed. "You too."

Takuya wrapped an arm around Zoe's waist and led her the other way, waving back to the other three. "See you guys tomorrow!" she waved back as well. "Nice to meet you!"

Tai waved the two off and dropped his arm limply to his side. "This crap is still heavy."

Shin sighed. "I told you to stop acting like a baby."

Agumon smacked his forehead. "Would you two just knock it off? You were getting along so well."

"Yeah, no need to be such a hard-ass Shin." Ryudamon poked accusingly.

The two scoffed at each other before skulking on in silence. Agumon and Ryudamon simply shrugged and followed. After a few moments though, Tai spoke up. "Hey Shin…."

"What?"

"I'm sorry for the freak out." Tai adjusted his helmet as he tried not to slouch from the weight of the armor and looked at the afternoon sun with a sigh. "There's too much going on."

Shin smiled under his mouth guard. "Don't worry about it." Suddenly a cough racked his body as he kneeled to the sidewalk. *cough* "Damn it!" *cough*

He was brought down to all-fours, gaze fixed on the concrete as his body heaved. Tai rushed to his side. "Shin! Are you ok?!" he put a hand on his fellow knight's shoulder, but only felt trembling. _What's wrong with him?_

Ryudamon's face was full of dread. _Oh no, not now! Stop coughing!_

The two digimon ran to his side as well, but it seemed like there was nothing they could do for Shin. Tai grabbed Shin's arm and hoisted it over his shoulder. "Hold on, if we can get you to my place, we might be able to help you!"

Shin chuckled as the coughs seemed to be subsiding, or being repressed. "Don't make such a fuss." He tried to detach from Tai's grip, but stumbled and fell right on his face. "Oh hell……"

"Don't move you idiot!" Ryudamon jumped on his head repeatedly as his partner simply groaned in response until the dragon jumped back off. "Tai, can you pick him up again? This guy doesn't know when to quit."

Tai sighed and nodded. "Listen to him Shin; you're in no shape to move."

Shin growled a little as Tai picked him up again, but he didn't struggle. "Fine, just get me somewhere where I can wash out this filthy mouth plate…." He removed said plate and Tai was disgusted to see that there was a sizeable amount of blood in it.

"What the hell-?"

Shin just tossed the blood out and wiped his mouth, leaving a bit of a stain on the back of his forearm. "Don't *cough* ask."

Tai shook his head. "Alright. Agumon and Ryudamon go on ahead and let my mom know we're going to need a free bed."

The two nodded. "Come on Ryudamon, I'll show you the way."

"Right."

The two took off in a brisk run, leaving Tai and Shin to slowly make their way behind them. Shin grunted with each step as it seemed like an effort for him to even keep moving. "I hate feeling like this….."

"Like what?"

"Weak." Shin almost slumped but Tai caught him. "You know this would be a whole lot easier if we weren't wearing armor." Lamented Tai.

Shin chuckled. "I suppose that's true, but you're going to have to listen to me."

No response.

"I'll take that as a yes. Now, the reason your armor is activated in the first place is your desire to protect someone or something precious to you. Am I right?"

"Yeah."

"It's still on you because that hasn't changed. I'm pretty sure my speech back there put you on high alert."

"No kidding. You made this sound like a suicide mission. Kari and Sora were freaked."

Shin nodded. "Yeah…sorry about that. It's just that….there's a lot on the line."

Tai clenched his jaw and ignored an urge to drop his friend. "Don't you think I know that?!"

Shin flinched momentarily, but continued. "Calm down, you didn't let me finish."

Tai huffed.

"Anyway, without a doubt there was going to be somebody that wanted to come along. Or in this case, probably multiple people. The problem is that without enhanced powers like ours, they'd be marching to their deaths."

Tai swallowed hard. "TK was right when he asked what makes us so special."

Shin looked away in shame. "Individually, we're not more special than the digidestined. I found that out the hard way…"

Tai shook his head. "You're one weird guy Shin, but as I said before, I'm not going to ask."

"Why not?"

Tai lifted Shin up a little more as he noticed him lagging. "Because I trust you."

Shin smiled. "I guess that's positive progress for the day."

The two laughed as they made their way to Tai's.

* * *

With Takuya and Zoe the mood wasn't exactly the same. The two strolled down the street looking pretty much like a couple already. Him with a hand around her waist and her hugging his, there were however, a lot of things on their respective minds.

Takuya kept looking at the houses and then the address on the piece of paper that Shin gave him, but in the back of his mind he was trying to formulate a plan. _How am I going to tell Takato about all this? _He blew a bit of hair out of his face in frustration.

Zoe looked up at him. "What's wrong Takuya?"

"Huh? Oh….well, I've been thinking about how to break this to Takato." Takuya looked up at the sky, still wondering.

Zoe hugged him a little tighter. "Yeah, you definitely don't want to pull what Shin did" She smiled warmly at him. "That's pretty thoughtful Takuya."

Takuya shot her a goofy grin. "Yeah, you know me."

She started giggling and he simply smirked. As the two enjoyed their banter, they didn't notice a fog rolling in from seemingly nowhere. Zoe shivered as she felt a bit cold. "Where did all this fog come from?"

Takuya grew increasingly concerned as the buildings around them started fading from sight. "I don't know, but this is really thick." He pulled his goggled over his eyes. ""I don't think this is natural….."

*BOOM*

The ground rocked as a fire immediately broke out on one of the buildings. "Get Down!" Takuya held Zoe protectively as he narrowed his eyes to see well. A figure knelt upon the lip of the building's roof, staring down menacingly with two burning yellow eyes. "You! What are you?!" Takuya shouted.

The figure started cackling madly. "Wouldn't you like to know?!"

Takuya immediately reached for his digivice, but the building door burst open, revealing a coughing and ash-covered woman. "Help! Help me please!"

She latched onto Takuya and started tugging his arm incessantly. "GAH! Jeez lady, you're gonna rip my arm off!"

She tugged harder. "There's no time! My children are trapped in there."

Zoe deadpanned. "Seriously?! You'd leave them in there?!"

Takuya tapped her shoulder. "Uh …Zoe?"

"What?!"

He pointed to the sign above the building's entrance.

"Shinjuku orphanage?!"

Takuya nodded. "Yup."

The woman crossed her arms and tapped her foot expectantly, glaring at Zoe. Zoe shrugged bashfully. "How was I supposed to know?"

Takuya put the note in her hands. "No time, call Takato and tell him to get his butt over here." He leaned over and kissed her full on the lips again and left her with a wink. "Just for luck." He tried to open the door, but the handle was already red hot. "Crap! Hot!"

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Of course it's hot." She muttered to herself.

Takuya wound up and kicked the door right in. "I'll be right back!" he yelled back as he charged.

"Takuya wait-"but he was already inside the building. Zoe grimaced as she looked at the shred of paper in her hand. _I hope you're ready for this Takato._ She started dialing his number.

The phone rang twice before she heard "Hello?"

"Hi is this Takato?"

"Uh, yeah, who's this?"

"This is Zoe. I'm Takuya's… girlfriend now I guess."

"His girlfriend?!" she held the phone away from her ear.

"Yeah, but no time for questions. I need you to come down to the Shinjuku orphanage right away!"

"The orphanage? But why?"

Zoe rolled her eyes. _Don't goggle heads ever listen? _"It's on fire! Takuya told me to call you. " She looked at the building with concern. "He just went in there to save a bunch of kids, so please, we need your help!"

Takato gripped the phone tightly. "Ok, I'll be right there!"

"Thank you."

Takato grinned. "Not a problem." He flipped his phone closed and looked to the intently listening Guilmon. "We've got work to do, boy!" he quickly flipped his D-arc out. "Ready to go?"

Guilmon nodded. "Let's go!" he yelled excitedly

BIOMERGE DIGIVOLUTION

"Guilmon Biomerge to…Gallantmon!"

The white knight stood tall as the fading sun glinted off of his armor. Luckily he'd remembered to get out of the window before he'd digivolved or else, there would be nothing to come home too. He looked at the smoke billowing out of the roof of the orphanage, but also noticed the digital fog. "It's a digimon….."

He jumped high into the air and floated at breakneck speed to his destination. "Takuya's defenseless if he's in the building! Guilmon, we have to go faster!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!"

Takato sighed. "Ok, almost there."

The wind kicked up under him, blowing around papers and catching people off guard as he flew overhead, including a certain redhead. Rika's hair blew into her face. "Huh?" she looked up into the sky to catch a glimpse of Gallantmon's cape. "Takato?"

She ran to a nearby corner to see where'd he'd flown off to and saw the digital field as well as a cloud of thick, black smoke. She whipped out her D-arc. "Renamon!"

In an instant, the kitsune was next to her partner. "Yes Rika?"

She cracked her knuckles as her gaze didn't leave the scene. "It's time to go to work."

BIOMERGE DIGIVOLUTION

"Renamon Biomerge to…Sakuyamon!"

A beautiful shaman woman clad in golden armor stood where the two had been moments before. She twirled her staff in hand and stretched out a little. "It's been a while since we had a good rumble." After one long stretch and a yawn, she took off toward the digital field. "Gotta make sure goggle head doesn't get his butt kicked."

"Is that the only reason?" Renamon asked in an amused tone. Rika didn't respond and the Kitsune mentally smirked.

As for the aforementioned goggle head, he'd landed at his destination, surprising the two women already outside.

"EEK!" the older one hid behind Zoe, who simply gasped in awe.

Gallantmon didn't recognize the older woman's voice so he simply asked the other. "Are you Zoe?"

Zoe cocked her head a little, recognizing a portion of his voice "Takato?"

Gallantmon saluted with his lance. "At your service."

"Are you a digimon?!"

Takato heard crumbling stone above and held his shield up, the debris simply slid off. "No time to explain, but when there's a fog like this in the real world, there's normally digimon around."

"But that means….." She tried to run out from under the shield. "Takuya!"

Gallantmon stopped her gently. "Don't."His eyes locked onto the roof again as he readied lance and shield. " I'll make sure this building doesn't fall!" He flew off into the smoke with cape billowing.

Zoe coughed, the smoke was getting to her and the other woman had passed out, either from the smoke or shock of seeing Takato. "Come on, we'll let those guys handle it." Zoe picked her up and started slowly dragging her to a safe area. _I know you can do it Takuya…Takato, please protect him._

_

* * *

  
_

Takuya had found his way into the upper levels of the building and he heard children crying. Already covered in soot, he coughed as he slowly made his way to the sound. "Hello?!"

"Help! Please help us!"

His head swiveled to a door at the end of the hallway, it seemed like all of the children had holed up in the communal dining area and barricaded it. Takuya crouched and put his arm up to block his nose from the smoke fumes. Eyes burning with tears, he struggled to see clearly and a flaming beam came down in front of the dining hall, barring his advance.

Takuya leapt back as it almost hit him. "GAH!"

He whipped out his digivice and shouted "Spirit evolution!"

SPIRIT EVOLUTION

A bright glow enveloped him, but he felt a moderate stretching force on his body. Something didn't feel right. _Something's off!_ he thought as he felt the pressure of armor press his body into the hot ground. "OW!" he fell over with Agunimon's armor on his body, but it was over-sized. As he inspected the armor in the light of the fire, something dawned in his head. _I'm not digital anymore...I can't spirit evolve!_

Grunting in frustration, he dismissed the spirit armor and tried to come up with a plan. The heat was stifling and his mind raced. _What made me think this was a good idea?!_ His legs threatened to fail, as did his body from smoke inhalation, but he heard Shin's words on his mind.

_If you truly need them, they will come. _

Takuya's eyes hardened as his view cleared up, reflecting the fire surrounding him. _Those kids need me. _He unsheathed his Katana. _I'm not gonna quit here! _ With a mighty shout, he cleaved the beam in two and dashed forward, heat and smoke no longer affecting him. Arriving in front of the room, he banged on the barricade loudly. "Open up, I'm getting you out!"

He heard a teenage boy on the other side. "We can't! The furniture's on fire over here!"

Takuya gritted his teeth. _Damn it! _But then he looked at his sword and it dawned on him. _Oh, right, duh. _He shouted again. "Alright, I need all of you to clear the front of the door. I'm coming in!"

He waited a few moments before the reply came back. "Ok! We're clear."

Takuya gripped the Katana hard as he prepared another strike. "Alright!" He hefted the blade above his head and hesitated for a minute. _Here goes nothing!_ He thought as he brought the sword down in a shining arc.

Like a hot knife through butter, the sword cut true and the furniture gave way, surprising the inhabitants inside and as the dust settled, they saw Takuya standing proudly in the doorway. Gesturing behind himself with the Katana he commanded "Let's get out of here, everybody!"

* * *

On the roof Gallantmon stood ready to face the cause of the destruction. Plumes of smoke poured out of the building, obscuring his vision, but the blood red light of the fire was enough for him. Scanning the charred rooftop he slowly strode across. Shadows danced in the light against the smokescreen and he kept getting glimpses of something moving.

In his sphere Takato grew nervous. _Where is it?_ Golden eyes now frantically looked for his opponent. _A fire this big, it had to be at least a champion. _

The grip on his lance grew tighter, as did his bicep to press the shield against his body. Cape billowing in the wind, the knight grew increasingly more tense until he heard a *BANG*. Whirling in the direction of the noise he stabbed powerfully, but….into thin air.

Gallantmon growled to himself. _What was that?_

He looked over the edge and saw Takuya running out with all of the orphanage's children, covered in smoke, but relatively unharmed. He sighed in relief before he called out. "Hey, Takuya!"

Takuya turned around and saw a large knight waving a lance at him and recoiled in slight shock. "WAH!" but then he took a close look before chuckling. He said "Almost didn't recognize you there Takato, but nobody could mistake that face of yours!"

Takato smiled sheepishly to himself before he answered "Yeah, I guess not!"

Unbeknownst to both, a figure, sheathed in blue fire rose from the smoke and loomed behind Gallantmon. Takuya's eyes grew in horror as he saw the enemy raise a flaming chain to strike the unaware Gallantmon and he shouted "Takato! Look out!"

"Good night, sweet prince!"

Gallantmon barely had enough time to duck as the chain flew by within a hairs breadth of his skull. Luckily for him, his enemy had overreached and was now off balance so he spun and slammed the broad side of his shield into the blue-flamed being, sending it flying backwards. It landed with only a slight noise as the area around it started melting.

This didn't faze Gallantmon and as he strode up to his opponent he only said "That's knight to you!"

He held up his lance to the neck of his enemy, now clearly revealed, it was a Skullmeramon, and spoke calmly. "You've threatened innocent children and nearly killed a good friend of mine." He stepped forward. "I have to send you back to the digital world."

Skullmeramon grinned wildly at him. "You really think it would be so easy? "

Gallantmon's expression didn't change.

Skullmeramon simply grinned smugly at him, but Gallantmon discerned his foe staring behind his back and turned just in time to hear "Fire fist of Shiva!"

"What-?!" Gallantmon grunted as he brought his shield about to bear the strike and was pushed back by the force of the attack. As the smoke cleared, he saw his other enemy fully. "Asuramon?!" he exclaimed in shock.

The four-armed, three-faced digimon simply stared at him with his anger face dominant. In Guilmon's voice Gallatmon asked "Aren't you supposed to be one of the good guys?"

He didn't get an answer as he suddenly found himself with a flaming chain tightening around his neck. He gagged as Skullmeramon tightened it. "AUGH! *cough*" Gallantmon dropped to his knees as the air was cut off and chain started searing into his neck.

Skullmeramon stood up behind him to keep his leverage and Asuramon sneered at the knight saying "You are weak!"

Gallantmon stared hard at Asuramon in front of him, the latter of which now had a flaming fist cocked back, aimed for his face. "Any last words?" Asuramon asked snidely.

On the ground Takuya grew concerned, there hadn't been a sound in a little over two minutes as the fire steadily burned the building away. _Are you okay Takato? Why aren't there any sounds of fighting?!_

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Zoe. "Don't you dare go running off again." She said.

"He might be in danger Zoe!" he replied, trying, as gently as possible to get out of her grip.

Zoe relented with a sigh. "I can't keep stopping you, but please promise me you'll be careful. If he's in danger, there's no telling what could happen to you."

Takuya looked her face over, which was fraught with worry. "You never used to be like this in the digital world. Why are you so worried?"

She crossed her arms and shrugged. "I don't know, maybe its cause I…can't help you if anything goes wrong."

Takuya chuckled to himself when she finished as he enveloped her in a hug and kissed her forehead, catching her by surprise. He whispered in her ear "It would take an army of digimon to stop me from seeing you smile."

She looked at him in shock of the sincerity of his words and he winked at her. "Even then, not for long."

Zoe closed her eyes, smiled serenely and simply said. "Go."

Takuya nodded and ran back into the building, sword glinting in the fire. _I'm coming Takato!_

_

* * *

_Alright, stuff's ramping up huh?! let's keep it going. Please r+r my friends._  
_


	8. Dragon's Roar! Armor Up!

Hey everybody, sorry it's been awhile, something like two years in fact, you know, college hehe, but I'm back and ready to get cranking on this story again. Special thanks to my beta reader and for those fans who are coming back, I came back for you, so enjoy the fic guys!

* * *

Legend of the D-Knights

Chapter 8

Dragon's roar! Armor up!

Gallantmon's eyes watered and shut as the chain tightened around his neck and he saw Asuramon's fist pumped back to deal the finishing blow.

"Any last words, Knight?"

Life flashed before the digimon's eyes from his two souls and he smiled under his mask. "I really don't know what to say. It was pretty pathetic you guys had to sneak attack and team up on little old me."

Asuramon frowned. "We weren't taking any foolish chances with a warrior of your caliber. You have no idea the threat that you pose to our masters."

Gallantmon choked out a chuckle. "That's true, but what did you expect?" He opened his eyes and stared courageously at his executioner "I'm a goggle-boy."

Asuramon reared back and Skullmeramon grinned maniacally. "Time to put an end to your meddling!" shouted three enraged faces.

Gallantmon braced himself calmly for what he assumed to be his end. The heat around him was surprisingly comforting however. The thick black smoke had choked out all hope of sunlight in the area; however, a light erupted from the smoke.

"Takato!"

Gallantmon's eye snapped open to see Sakuyamon rocket towards them, striking Asuramon square on the top of the head. "Get away from him!"

"UGH!" Asuramon flew a considerable distance away, completely flattened. The enraged warrior priestess turned her attentions to Skullmeramon, who choked Takato a little harder, intending to use him as a human shield.

"Put him down. Now." Her voice chilled Skullmeramon to the core. In making eye contact, he couldn't fathom the amount of killing intent aimed at him. Against better judgment, he shifted backwards slightly and taunted Rika. "Or else what?"

Sakuyamon didn't move a muscle. The unwanted truth of the matter was that a homicidal digimon had Gallantmon by the neck, fully capable of killing him with enough force. The two engaged in a staring contest and Skullmeramon failed to notice a smaller figure creeping among the shadows near him.

Sakuyamon was slightly suspicious of this new figure, but if Skullmeramon was unaware, then there might be some hope. A Fiery glow erupted from the sword in the figure's hand and the flames surrounding the immediate area poured into it.

"Or else we're gonna kick your ass!" Takuya lunged, sword blazing furiously, at the chain. In one powerful swing, the chain snapped into burning links and Takuya drop-kicked Skullmeramon back against the roof's edge.

Gallantmon dropped forward into the waiting arms of Sakuyamon, who hugged him upright. "Are you alright?"

Gallantmon cracked a grin. "Yeah, thanks to you."

Takuya had taken a defensive stance in between the two and the downed Skullmeramon, but still managed to roll his eyes. "Ahem!"

Gallantmon chuckled. "Right, thank you too Takuya."

"Oh sure, no problem." He replied sarcastically. "It only took an insane amount of smoke. And don't even get me started on the stairs!"

Sakuyamon shook her head at the two D-Knights. "Goggle-boys are all the same…"

Takuya mocked her in his head, but knew he had to stop cracking wise when he noticed Skullmeramon stirring. "Whoa, now big fella….." he jumped up on the digimon's chest, and slammed him down. "I need you to stay down."

With Gallantmon still struggling to gain his bearings, Sakuyamon was still holding him up, back turned to Asuramon, but Takato saw him getting back up and desperately willed his body to move. "Sakuyamon. Let me fall."

The golden-clad digimon looked at her friend incredulously. "What-?" her eyes snapped wider as she heard a fast rustling behind her. On pure instinct, she dropped Gallantmon and spun her staff defensively, whirling 180 degrees. In a whirl of motion six flaming fists came at her all at once, her adversary shouting"Fire fist of Shiva!"

Unfortunately for the shaman woman, she only managed to block two of them and was pummeled by the remaining four. She grunted as she was scorched and forced back. Gallantmon tried to lift his shield as his immobile body continually refused to cooperate. "Rika!"

Asuramon looked pleased with himself as he examined the damage done to his opponent. Kneeling before him, Sakuyamon panted lightly, but she was a Mega digimon after all. She stood up with no visibly ill effect from the assault and brushed off a scorch mark on her armor. Asuramon paled.

"I'm a mega level digimon…." She stared daggers at her attacker. "…You are nothing!"

Asuramon recoiled at the bite in her voice and Gallantmon rose to kneel. Breathing hard, Takato grabbed his shield and spear. "She's right you know. Being outgunned and outnumbered sucks doesn't it?"

Asuramon gnashed his teeth in anger at the two mega digimon. "You haven't beaten us yet!"

"We still have one trick left up our sleeve!" Skullmeramon shouted as he vaulted Takuya off his chest and skidding toward the other two. The two digimon ran at each other, shining a haunting purple light. "Dark DNA digivolution!"

Gallantmon's eyes filled with dread and he willed his arm to move. "Not a chance! Lightning joust!" a lightning bolt flashed out of his lance, but while it landed in between his targets, the two simply jumped into each other and the process began.

"Skullmeramon….."

"Asuramon….."

"Dark DNA Digivolve to….!"

A pure black field surrounded the two and it grew at least twice in size. Takuya had shaken off the impact and now stood wary of the unholy union. "Hey guys, what's gonna come out?"

Gallantmon groaned in pain as he stood and shrugged. "I don't know Takuya." He looked over to Sakuyamon. "Rika, you're better at the card game, do you know what those two fuse into?"

Sakuyamon shook her head. "I don't. They're using something unnatural." She readied her staff. "In any case, stay on your toes goggles."

Gallantmon placed his shield in front of Takuya to protect the unarmored D-Knight. Without looking at him, Gallantmon spoke. "I think you'd better get out of here."

Takuya stepped out of the shield's cover with a defiant snort. "Yeah, right, I'm not leaving one of my own here."

Sakuyamon bristled. "You heard him! Takuya was it? Get out of here and let us handle this!"

Takuya flinched, but stood firm. "Not a chance in hell. If you guys can't handle whatever this is, then Zoe could get hurt." He flashed the blade and charged it with energy. "No way am I risking that!"

Gallantmon stole a glance at Sakuyamon, but then nodded to Takuya, urge to fight rising in them both. Sakuyamon did notice the glance though; something was different about the goggle-boy. She still didn't like the idea of Takuya standing with them. "Look, don't be stupid-!"

"Too late!" a demonic voice shouted from the black egg as it exploded. "Diaboromon has arrived!" Black claws swiped at the two mega digimon and they leapt out of the way, whereas Takuya had to repel the claw aimed right for him.

Takuya was forced to bring his blade to bear and desperately swung to deflect the blow, burning a finger off of the monster's claw. "Whew, I'm not that easy you bug-eyed freak!"

Diaboromon grimaced at the wound but then looked at the two megas with a slasher smile. "I've got something for you two!"

Gallantmon stood in front of Sakuyamon, shield charging up. "I'm not giving you that chance! Shield of the-!"

Diaboromon simply smiled and slammed his hands on the ground. "Child's play. Network Crasher!" Green light erupted from the gangly demon and enveloped the tamers, forcibly ripping the mega digimon apart into their basic forms.

"-Just!" Takato shouted; now back in his own body. Guilmon looked incredibly confused and glanced over to the de-digivolved Rika and Renamon. "Umm, Takato?" he tapped his tamer on the shoulder nervously.

Takato faced up to the towering mega with unflinching resolve. At least it originally seemed that way, however his legs simply refused to move. "Well, this is certainly an inconvenience….." he lamented as he stared at his quivering legs. Rika rubbed her head; getting split by brute force was quite the unpleasant experience. "Ugh, what happened?"

Renamon stared menacingly at their opponent. "He tore us apart." She grabbed Rika's wrist and pulled her to her feet. "Rika, we need to run, now."

Rika was about to protest, but Renamon wasn't going to hear of it and picked her up swiftly. Diaboromon tried to swipe a claw at her, but Takuya lunged with all his might and cut the attack off. "Get to safety!"

Another finger was burned off and Diaboromon growled, however, he noticed the frozen tamer and clueless dinosaur at his feet and started charging his chest cannon with a wicked grin. "Web Wrecker!"

Takato's legs still wouldn't move. His eyes simply fixated on the green glow targeting his face. "This is gonna hurt."

"Takato, snap out of it!" Rika screamed.

Guilmon ran up to Diaboromon and launched a volley at him. "Pyro sphere!"

The mega simply swatted him away. "Get lost vermin!"

Guilmon slammed into the railing hard and was knocked unconscious. Renamon's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You'll pay."

Cannon charging he simply laughed at her empty threat and pointed the projectile at Takato. "We'll see about that."

Rika struggled out of Renamon's grip and made a mad dash to try and tackle Takato out of the way. Takuya leapt onto Diaboromon and stabbed his sword into his back. "Don't forget about me you overgrown cockroach!"

Diaboromon roared in raged as he tried to swipe the wielder of fire off of himself, but for all of his efforts, Takuya hung on even tighter, going so far as to start burning him from the inside.

With Diaboromon thrashing about, the cannon shot didn't launch and Rika tackled Takato to the ground. "What the hell Takato? Why were you just standing there?" She asked as she shook some sense back into the young man.

Like snapping out of a trance he looked at her bewildered. "I don't know…..my legs wouldn't let me move."

She sighed and dragged him up to his feet. "Come on, we've gotta get some backup or something, our digimon can't digivolve!"

Takato glanced over at where Takuya was still fighting with Diaboromon and shook his head. Manifesting his katana, he gently pushed her away. "I'm not running from this." He put a hand on her shoulder. "But I need you and Renamon somewhere safe, let us handle this now."

Rika was outraged. "What? You idiot, we couldn't take him down as megas! What do you expect to do with just you two?"

Diaboromon finally managed to swat Takuya away and sent the warrior sprawling in front of the two Tamers. Feebly, he got back to his feet and readied another attack, but not before briefly saying. "Listen to him Rika. He doesn't want to see you hurt." Sword blazing anew, he swiped mercilessly at the willowy giant. "That was nothing!" he coughed "Come on ugly!"

Takato gestured to the stairwell with his katana. "There's no time to argue Rika, now go!"

Rika stared at him strangely; almost unsure of what to say, but Takato certainly didn't expect "No."

Takato's arm dropped to his side wearily as he sighed. "Please…. I have to try."

This time she was certainly caught off guard by his plea, but after a few seconds of trying to read his face, she reluctantly nodded with a frustrated sigh. "Alright goggles….you win."

A tired smile graced his features as a sigh of relief left him. "Thank you."

Rika turned and jogged to Renamon, cocking her head in the direction of the door. "Let's go." Renamon nodded and followed her tamer silently. Before they reached the door to the stairwell however, Rika paused and took one last look in Takato's direction. "You'd better come out of this one alive gogglehead, or else."

Takato grinned nervously. "Hehe, great ….."

Rika shot him one last genuine smile before she continued running to the door. However, Renamon had encountered a problem opening said door. "Rika, this door locks from the inside!"

Rika moved for the handle and jiggled it frantically. "Oh crap on a stick…" she looked toward the roof's edge and then back at Renamon. "Could you jump us down safely?"

Renamon shook her head solemnly. A sense of dread filled Rika as her attention turned back at Diaboromon, who had, once again, knocked Takuya back down. He skidded to a stop at Takato's feet and lay flat for a moment, wheezing out a tired breath. "Man…" he panted. "This guy's tough."

Takato nodded and tried to help his fellow D-Knight up. "Can you still fight?"

Takuya managed a pained grin as he stood, joints cracking slightly. "Yeah, I think I've got a little more left in me."

Takato readied his sword to face the monstrosity. "Shin's always talkin' about teamwork. Let's do it."

Guilmon sat up and clutched his head in pain. "OW! Takato, what happened to my head?"

Takato smacked his forehead. Takuya, exasperated, asked him. "You forgot about Guilmon?"

"I forgot about Guilmon." Takato replied, rolling his eyes. "Problem is, I don't know what, if anything, these powers can make him do."

Takuya nodded. "That is a problem. I wouldn't risk anything if I were you."

Diaboromon cleared his throat. "Uh, yeah, giant black abomination trying to kill you, try and stay focused."

The two bantering D-Knights turned to him, faces instantly morphing to ones of severity. Swords turned on Diaboromon and the two remained wary.

"That's more like it!" he grinned and fired a green bolt out of his cannon. "Web wrecker!"

Both blades clashed into the energy beam as the warriors split it in half and redirected it into the air. "Some weak attack that was!" Takuya quipped, and he rushed the boss monster. Takato followed his lead and the two had to avoid the quickly spinning lash arms. Takato though, not being as athletic as Takuya, didn't avoid all damage.

A large gash opened up along the young man's leg and his jump course was thrown off, sending him into a flip. "GAH! Ok, flying, not cool." He said right before his sword made contact with Diaboromon's flesh, allowing enough of a distraction for Takuya to really lay a straight blazing slash across the beast's chest.

"ARGH!" he shouted as he stumbled back while clutching the fresh wound. Takuya landed across from where he'd started, carried by the force of his swing. Takato however, landed straight down, and quite awkwardly considering his leg was now bleeding profusely. "Ugh. I need to learn to dodge better."

Takuya nodded, but the two were blindsided by a wildly thrashing limb of Diaboromon. "You can't defeat me! I'm too powerful to die!"

"That's never stopped me from trying!" shouted Takato as a wave of flame spewed out of his sword directly at his opponent "Whoa". Diaboromon held up his hand in defense but, it was in vain. In an instant the flames engulfed and deleted his good hand, making the demon howl in pain.

"What have you done to me?" he growled, clutching the data-leaking stump where his hand used to be. Takuya slide-tackled Diaboromon and then sliced a good portion off of his leg. "Just doing our jobs."

Takato nodded. "To protect the people we care about and the digital word, it's our sworn duty." He pointed his sword in a challenge to Diaboromon. "We're not going down without a fight."

Renamon was currently trying to pick the door lock with her claw, but to no avail. Rika had taken up to leaning against the door to watch the battle and after all that had been said, she'd been left pretty speechless. "Jeez gogglehead, when'd you suddenly grow up?" she muttered to herself, slightly amused.

Guilmon trudged over, still dizzy from his aching head, but he nosed in next to Renamon's head and asked "Can I help?"

The vulpine digimon was slightly startled, but kept working like nothing had happened. "I can't get this lock open." She said calmly.

Guilmon poked around the door handle with curiosity and even bit it once or twice trying to jostle it open. But, after a while, the digimon nodded and inhaled deeply. "Pyro sphere!" a ball of flame incinerated the handle, lock and all, and the two females present looked at each other dully.

"Well, that's one way to do it." Deadpanned Renamon.

Rika sighed and pointed the two into the stairwell. "Well, we might as well take Guilmon with us. It doesn't look like he'll be much use around here."

Guilmon's ears drooped as he stomped into the stairwell, but Renamon ushered him forward with a comforting hand. "It's alright Guilmon; we'll go get you some bread."

At this Guilmon immediately perked up and raced down the stairs quicker than a flash, leaving Renamon dumbfounded. As Rika snickered at her partner, she turned to the battle and called over. "Hey gogglehead! We're taking dino boy down with us!"

Takato parried another swipe from Diaboromon before responding "Thanks Rika, I owe you one."

She winked at him and turned to shut door. In the moment that Takato stood dumbfounded, Diaboromon rammed Takuya and flailed all of his limbs in Takato's direction, flattening the former and sending the Tamer flying in Rika's direction.

Takuya coughed and managed to see where Takato had flown. "Rika watch out!" he shouted.

Rika turned back around to see Takato flying in her direction, except instead of hitting her, he skid on and off the top of the stairwell housing and crashing hard onto the roof again, sword trailing him. Unfortunately, his sword was still glowing brightly and it bisected the roof of the housing, causing it to collapse. Rika leapt back out onto the roof as her only avenue of escape was blocked. "Well, so much for that…" she said, looking back at the wrecked piece of architecture.

Takato had landed hard and was lying still. Rika quickly got up and ran over to him. "Hey, gogglehead, are you alright?"

Takato breathed heavily as he nodded. "I'll…be fine…I just need to pass out for a few minutes"

She bent down to help his battered body up. "No, you idiot, you're still fighting!"She shouted as she flung his arm over her shoulder. He cocked an eyebrow. "Am I?" he asked tiredly. Rika sighed and nodded.

Diaboromon gained a twisted grin and sneered at Takuya as he advanced on the Tamers. "It's time to end you once and for all." He licked his lips and stalked up to them with bloodied claw held high. He suddenly stopped and looked at his ankle, it was Takuya!

"I'm not dead yet you crappy excuse for a digimon." He clamped tightly on Diaboromon's ankle, but his strength was waning. The dark digimon chuckled and picked Takuya up by his head. "You, I think I'll save you for last…" his gaze turned to the tamers. "….you two however, I think you deserve to die together."

Rika paled when she saw the chest cannon's green glow getting brighter and brighter. She tried to shake Takato into action, but his leg was still bleeding badly and he was in no shape to move yet. "Rika, get out of here." He said.

Enraged the female tamer turned on her friend, "stop telling me what to do!" she spat out at him. "I'm not leaving you here to die."

Takuya fought to get out of Diaboromon's grip, but nothing seemed to work. The cannon's whine was getting louder and was about to fire any second from now. Takato chuckled and freed his arm from Rika's tightening grasp. "I guess then…." He dislodged himself from Rika's grasp. "….all the more reason we can't die here right?" with those last words his strength gathered anew and on his own two legs he stood between Rika and Diaboromon, confidently bringing his katana to bear. "Diaboromon, I'll take your best shot!"

The demon smirked evilly. "If you insist! Web wrecker!" the roughly truck sized bolt screamed at Takato and he didn't flinch. All Rika could shout was "Takato!"

Eyes shut….. Deafening silence….had the ending come?

Rika opened her eyes slightly and received a shock. Deep crimson light was shining bright against the sickly green of the attack and she immediately knew what her friend had done. Takato's body was coated in the same light as that day when he saved her. Warmth and strength wrapped around the tamer as his aura did as well.

"I'm a D-Knight Diaboromon! And I'm going to take you down!" he extended his arms outward and called "Dragon's roar! Armor up!"

The bright light swirled and enshrouded him before completely obliterating the attack. His D-arc screen read 'Aegis shield-activated'. His body became completely encased in the power and it grew even brighter into blinding proportions until it finally dulled to a dim glow.

A fully armored warrior now stood where Takato once had. Armor almost exactly in the shape of Gallantmon's cradled his body snugly. Crimson plating with silver accents and silver marks of the digital hazard were emblazoned on his armor. The helmet differed from Gallantmon's however; it was in the shape of a samurai's with a plain mouth plate and the symbol for the hazard as the crest.

Rika's mouth hung open. "Beautiful…."

Takuya smiled widely. "Atta boy…."

Diaboromon's eyes widened. "No! This cannot be! I will crush you!" he screamed as he flung Takuya back and charged forward.

Takato clutched a silver cape in his hand, which he calmly threw onto his back. "My name is Takato Matsuki and you threatened someone I love…" Holding his katana high, it shone brilliantly in preparation for the next assault. "….Prepare for deletion!"

Takuya landed in a three point stance, jammed his sword through the roof and closed his eyes in concentration, exerting his will through the blade. All the heat and flame that had been ravaging the building was pulled into the blade and once he grasped the handle again, he was coated in roaring flames. "Dragon's roar! Armor up!" echoed the warrior of fire.

Birthed from the flame was armor that visually resembled EmperorGreymon's red and orange set, however it was nowhere near as bulky. A pair of fiery wings sprouted from his back and his Helmet was adorned with the symbol of fire. Rising fully armored, his wings swiftly unfurled. "I am Takuya Kanbara, D-Knight of the Flame, and you are a curse to this world!"

Diaboromon backed up against the corner of the roof and lashed his arms out frantically. "No! Stay away you demons!"

"Face it Diaboromon, you're time is up." Takato advanced slowly and made eye contact with Takuya who nodded in response. The two took off in a charging flight, swords reaching the peak of their power.

"Dragon cross!" the two shouted, running their enemy through crossways. Diaboromon stood frozen in place, fear and shock the last things present on his face. Flames erupted from where he'd been sliced open and he was deleted.

Takuya sheathed his sword and walked over to the kneeling Takato. "Hey buddy, you feeling alright?" he bent down and grabbed him by the shoulder. Takato stood gingerly. "I guess, leg's still bleeding though."

Takuya looked down at Takato's shin guard and sure enough, it was dripping red at the bottom. "Gross. Let's get you somewhere safe." He moved to help Takato up, but Takato shook him off. "I'm alright Takuya." He started limping toward Rika. "Besides, I'm more worried about her than this stupid little injury."

Takuya shrugged with smile. "Alright, I'll meet you on the ground then." Takuya ran to the ledge and dove down towards Zoe. "Whee!"

Takato walked gingerly over to Rika, who hadn't said much of anything since he achieved transformation. Arms crossed, eyes closed, it almost seemed like she didn't want to look at him. "Um, Rika?"

"What gogglehead?" she didn't open her eyes.

"I can fly us down now." He offered a hand to her and that's when she finally looked at him. Anger seethed in her eyes and Takato was taken aback. "You idiot!" she clocked him square in the temple, which turned his head, but opened up a knuckle or two.

Rika stifled a grunt of pain. "You could have died. You stood there and took that attack like it was nothing. Did you even know that was going to work? "Her tone was low. "And what you said…. Why?"

Takato gulped in fear, but somehow maintained his calm. "Let's start with getting us off of here. I'll tell you about it later."

Rika huffed. "Fine." She took his hand, but then he lifted her up bridal style. "Hey what's the big idea?" she shrieked.

Takato winced as he stepped off of the roof and floated down. "This is the only way I could carry you down. It was either this or piggy-back." He winked, fully aware of the danger that put him in.

Rika felt her face grow hot and turned away from him. "Those hands better stay right where they are."

Takato chuckled nervously. "Of course, I'm not a complete idiot."

"That's debatable." She said, however with her face turned away, he didn't get to see a very small smile.

As he landed, their digimon partners ran up to them. "Rika, are you alright?" Renamon asked as she helped her tamer down. Rika shooed her away though. "I'm fine, the goggleheads saved our butts."

Guilmon sniffed around Takato's armor. "Takato, what's this?" he asked, poking around his tamer's sword. "It's called a Katana Guilmon, aren't you gonna ask about the armor?" Takato chuckled.

Guilmon's ear perked up. "What's armor?"

Rika smacked her forehead and Renamon giggled lightly. "Like tamer, like digimon." Lamented Rika. Takato simply banged on his chest to demonstrate. "This. This is armor."

Guilmon jumped on top of his Tamer and poked around. "Shiny. You look like a gundam!"

At this the two females broke out in hysterics. Takato sighed. "Oh Guilmon….."

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Pretty awesome right? I can't wait for guys to see how this story's gonna wind up, but I promise there's much more to come and I will do my best to keep this updated regularly. so r+r and give me some motivation to write faster haha


	9. Goodbyes

**Wow folks, it's been a while, seems like I've been dealing with my own stuff as well as major writers block. It always seems like I can picture individual instances or flashes of where my story will emotionally impact the readers and characters but it needs to be fleshed out better. I'll be doing my best this summer to keep updating because I've decided this story needs telling. As always, credit to Takaondo for beta reading, not even sure he's still on this site anymore because he's actually working on a novel but all the same. Without further ado, on with the fic!**

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Legend of the D-Knights

Chapter 9

Goodbyes

Takuya flew around the ravished building's corner with Zoe in his arms, squealing. "Go faster, go faster!"

Rika massaged her temples "Oh the squealing."

Takato started laughing in spite of the growing pain and small puddle of blood forming around his foot. "Well she's excitable. Hey Takuya, who's this?" he asked, pointing to the bubbly blonde. Takuya slowed down, stopped right in front of them and she jumped off and offered a hand to Takato. "Hi, I'm Zoe!"

"I'm Takato." He shook her hand and she immediately proceeded to Rika. "Your hair is so cool! What's your name?"

"Rika…." She looked a bit freaked out at Zoe's enthusiasm, but otherwise tolerated her. She heard the sirens in the distance and cleared her throat. "I think we'd better save the introductions for later. I'm not in the mood for questioning." She stuffed her hands in her pockets and started walking down the alley. "Let's get to my place; it's the big, gated house a few blocks down."

Takuya scooped Zoe up and took off, only shouting back. "Race you Takato!"

"Go Takuya go!"

Rika smacked her forehead and then gasped when she felt her feet leave the ground and the wind move past her. Takato had scooped her up and was now racing to catch up to Takuya. She bonked him on the head. "What's the big idea gogglehead?! Just because I let you do it once doesn't mean you can do it casually!"

Takato wasn't really listening, but a sly grin spread across his face and a mischievous twinkle dawned in his eye as he gained on Takuya. "Would you have liked it better if I had left you back there to walk?"

Rika opened her mouth so say something, but then simply huffed and crossed her arms. "Stop doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Stop making up valid excuses to carry me." She felt a small blush grow on her cheeks and suddenly frowned after that last comment.

The two flew on in silence for a few seconds, but she felt his grip a little more secure around her this time around. "Should you be talking like that Rika? People will think you've gone soft."

Rika grabbed him by his collar and brought his face closer to hers. Takato blushed as he had never been in such close proximity to her, but his hopes were dashed when she put her forehead on his with a look of death on her face. "Look goggles, if you tell anyone about this…"

Takato sighed. "Yeah, always protecting your reputation…."

Rika detected a hint of sadness in his eyes but shrugged it off as imaginary and turned back away. "Just get me home."

Takato wordlessly sped up and soon caught up with Takuya, who chuckled as he looked over to the competing pair. "Hey buddy, where you been?"

Takato simply smiled and left his friend in the dust on the way to Rika's, leaving Zoe giggling like mad. "Dang Takuya, he just kicked your butt."

Takuya frowned and willed his wings to flap faster, but in doing so, missed the turn into the courtyard. "Ah Damn it!" he looked back at the gate, but a shriek from Zoe called his attention to where he was flying, which was straight into a telephone pole.

"Oh hell…." He shifted his body at the last second to cushion the blow for Zoe. *THUNK*

Takuya gritted his teeth as he slid down the incredibly sturdy pole. "Ow, just ow." He landed on his butt with Zoe still on his arms and she knocked on his helmet gently. "Hey, you ok?"

Takuya winced as he stood back up. "Uh huh…" he managed to crack out. A little shakily he jumped over the fence into Rika's courtyard and put Zoe down, before clutching his head and falling to a knee. "Ugh, my head won't stop ringing."

Zoe put her hands on her hips. "It might help if you take off your armor. Although…" she knocked on his helmet again, a little louder. "...The brain damage might be permanent!" she said as she ran around front laughing her head off.

Takuya frowned jokingly. "You're so mean Zoe." He managed to get to his feet and slowly walked after her.

Takato, who had landed a minute or so earlier, now, leaned extremely casually, almost smoothly, up against one of the beams supporting the porch roof. Zoe looked around and noted the lack of digimon. "Hey, where are the other two?"

Takato pointed a thumb at the gate. "They'll probably be along soon, Renamon's smart enough to convince Guilmon to rush over here."

Takuya walked shakily over and leaned on the beam opposite, allowing his wings to fold over in front of him. "Careful there Takato, almost sounds like you don't care."

Takato actually managed to pull off a semi-decent impression of Rika's death glare and Takuya shuddered. Takato winced and relented his staring once the desired result was achieved. "It's not that Takuya. Guilmon's not as childish or oblivious as he used to be, and I know Renamon can keep him in line."

Takato gripped the beam hard and drew a sharp breath. "My leg is killing me."

Zoe bent down to look at his leg, and tried to lift the shin guard a smidge, but it clamped firmly tight. "All the adrenaline must have worn off." She posed in thought for a moment before remembering what Shin had said to Tai. "I don't know how we're going to fix your leg though, Shin told Tai that, other than the helmet, the armor seals around you."

Takato's head lolled back in exasperation. "Just perfect…. Hey wait, why'd she meet the others already?"

Takuya rubbed the top of his helmet. "Right, almost forgot about that, well….it seems like…."

The trio heard the door open and a worried Seiko Hata, along with an unreadable Rika appeared at the doorway. "I assume you fine gentlemen are friends of my granddaughter?"

The two nodded a little stupidly. Seiko turned her gaze to Zoe. "You as well young lady?" Zoe bowed politely. "I'm new, my name is Zoe."

Seiko bowed politely back. "Very nice to meet you." She gestured to the other two. "And you two are…?"

Takuya tipped his helmet politely. "Takuya, I'm also new."

Rika and Takato looked at each other, unsure of what to say. Rika crossed her arms before speaking. "Grandma, you remember Takato?"

Seiko smiled at Rika. "Of course dear, such a fine young lad, if not a bit scrawny."

Takato flexed his bicep to himself and hung his head low. Takuya barely contained his full-blown laughter as Zoe giggled a bit louder. Rika pointed to the crimson D-Knight. "That would be gogglehead."

Seiko smiling face was momentarily in a state of slight shock and she eyed the tamer suspiciously. "Takato? Is that you?"

Takato nodded and reluctantly tried to remove his helmet, which popped right off in one piece. "Yes ma'am, it's me."

Even with the hair pressed down from the sweat and weight of the armor, he didn't look much different facially. Overall though, there was a new air about him. Rika stared for a bit longer than she knew necessary and cursed herself for it. Seiko's smile again graced her features as she ushered the digidestined in.

"Come in children, come in and rest for a while."

Zoe bowed politely and walked in without any problems, Takuya however, was a tad skeptical about the weight of the armor. "I'm not sure I want to ruin your floors."

Seiko waved him off. "Nonsense, walk out back and take a seat, I'll make some refreshments."

Takuya nodded his thanks and proceeded in after his girlfriend. Takato however, was still leaning on the beam, with his hidden arm gripping it for dear life. Rika raised an eyebrow at him. "What's the matter gogglehead? Suddenly too good for my house?"

Takato chuckled nervously and shook his head. "No, it's not that Rika." He lifted his shin up a little. "I just don't want to get any blood on the floor."

Seiko gasped in worry and removed the hand towel from her shoulder before clamping it to the bottom of the shin guard. "Rika, take him to the bathroom and give him some first aid." She retreated into the house and immediately headed for the kitchen. "And make it fast, while I make a few grilled cheese sandwiches."

Rika stared at her grandmother disbelievingly and then back at Takato, who shrugged in response. "You heard her."

Rika mumbled a half-hearted death threat and flung Takato's arm over her shoulder to help support his weight. Surprisingly, she was able to help him in with no problem, which impressed Takato in the back of his mind. "Wow, you're really strong."

Rika smirked. "I try."

Takato's nose picked up the scent of lilacs on her and when he fully grasped her proximity, his heart caught in his throat. "You know, you smell nice too."

Rika fought the urge to twist his arm and simply gave him an irritated "Don't push your luck goggles."

Takato snickered a little. "Hey, this armor took on a crazed mega digimon; I figure it can buy me a few more seconds of life if you decide to kill me."

Rika rolled her eyes and sat him down on the toilet. "You've seen me ticked…" she poked two fingers into his chest and they walked their way up as a wicked smile grew on her face. "If I decided to kill you, you'd be shaking as I opened that armor like a tin can."

The ending of her statement radiated an edge that sent a somewhat pleasant tingle shooting through Takato. "I know I should be more scared than this. "He chuckled nervously. Rika sighed and sat down at the edge of the tub, lifting Takato's leg into her lap. "Just keep quiet and let me take a look at this."

She flipped a knife out of her pocket and Takato tried to pull away. "Whoa! What's that for?!" Rika held him in place firmly. "Stop squirming would you? I'm just going to lift the plate up."

Takato settled as he watched her slide the knife between skin and metal and pry the plate upwards. "Careful Rika, don't cut yourself."

Rika scoffed and didn't look up. "Who're you to be telling me not to get cut?" Takato hung his head. "I was klutzy, just let it go, I'm not really cut out for this you know?"

The plate shut closed again and the knife opened up the side of Rika's hand. She winced and put the cut in her mouth. "Yeah, I know that." She took her hand back out of her mouth and back on Takato's leg. "And that's why I have no idea what's gotten into you."

Takato managed to pick up the knife and put it in the sink. "What do you mean?" She gritted her teeth, stared straight into his eyes and clamped her hands around his shin guard. "Don't play dumb with me Takato. One day you and Guilmon are messing around like a couple of 5 year olds and now you're stepping in front of stuff trying to save me and acting like a knight in shining armor. What's this all about?!"

Takato lifted up her hand gently. "I know it's been a crazy few days, but Rika, these powers were given to me, to my brothers, for us to protect people." His hands wrapped around the one he held. "If I'm not jumping into danger, I'm not doing my job right." He chuckled at her stern expression, but was genuinely glad to see it soften into a smile.

"I don't know what I'm going to do with you goggles. Keep this up and I don't know how long you're going to last." Takato started snickering and she did as well, easing much of the tension between the two tamers. Between laughs Takato said "I don't know either Rika."

Sitting up a little straighter and re-establishing eye contact, he'd caught her off guard. "But, are you ok with this?"

All the sudden eye contact with her friend made Rika slightly uneasy, however she swallowed her fear and with unwavering voice said "Just don't die gogglehead." She gripped his hands in return and reached her free one to grab the first aid kit. "What's more, I'm gonna help you as much as I can."

Takato leaned his head back and shut his eyes in relaxation. "I wouldn't have it any other way. You know….." his face grew hot as he wanted to say something flirty, but held his tongue. "…Never mind."

Rika gently pulled her hand back and looked at him questioningly. "What's the matter? I can see that blush on your face." The wicked grin from earlier adorned her face again. "That's another thing, you're saying romantic things and you're blushing a lot, kind of like when you had… a crush on Jeri….." as soon as those words left her lips, she regretted it.

Takato's face had fallen slightly, but she saw more pondering in his face than anything else. His eyes closed serenely and he simply spoke. "I'm not sure how you feel, but I'm not gonna bring it up if it makes you uncomfortable."

He retracted his hands as well as attempted to get up, but she sat him down. "Where do you think you're going? I still haven't bandaged your leg."

Takato sighed in frustration. "Just give it up, that shin plate isn't going anywhere unless I figure out how to take this armor off. I'll live."

That answer wasn't good enough for Rika. "Screw that, I said I'd help you right?" She clamped down on his leg again and moved the shin plate around a little, causing Takato to squirm from the discomfort. "Cut it out Rika!"

Rika's unwillingness to give up out of concern for her friend ignited something within her. "I'm going to heal you Takato, so sit still." Takato attempted to squirm out of her firm grip one more time, but stopped at the sight of a growing purple glow from Rika's hands.

"What in the…." Rika muttered as she noticed the cut on her hand heal over in mere seconds. She turned her hands over in shock and found not a scratch on them. "How…?"

Takato dared not speak as he had noticed the yin-yang symbols on the backs of her hands, he knew. "Love?" He muttered.

Rika actually looked scared as her hands hadn't stopped giving off the soft lavender light. She looked at Takato's leg and an idea soon followed. She gulped and steadied her hands towards his leg. "Hold still, I'm going to try something."

Takato held his breath as she wrapped her hands around his shin and with a bit of concentration, willed the leg to heal, armor and all. Takato sighed as he felt the pain leaving. "It's working!" his face radiated excitement. "Rika, its working!"

Rika exhaled in relief with a tired look on her face as it healed fully. "Yeah…" She wobbled a little. "I…don't feel so good." And suddenly she fell forward. "Whoa there!" Takato quickly kept her from falling and rested her head against his shoulder.

He wasn't sure whether to move her, so he called out. "Hey, Takuya, get in here!"

He heard metallic footsteps quickly approach the open doorway and Takuya poked his head around the corner. "Hey, is everything alright? Renamon's eyes just started glowing this freaky purple and…." He saw Rika unconscious against Takato's shoulder and rushed in. "What happened to her?"

Takato gently lifted her up and cocked his head toward the door. "The short of it is, she healed me and….. I think she's got powers like ours."

Takuya's mouth gaped as Takato pushed his way through to the living room and he laid Rika down on the couch. Seiko looked up from her cooking and rushed over as Renamon came running in. "What's wrong with my granddaughter?" asked Seiko.

Takato shook his head. "I'm not sure; she knocked out after she healed me."

Renamon inspected her Tamer closely. "I felt a strong rush of energy just now. Like my power had simply exploded exponentially."

Takuya and Takato looked at each other with concern. "Takato, I think we need to talk." Takuya motioned toward the back door and Takato nodded. As the two made their way outside, Takato turned back and said "If she wakes up, let us know, I fear she may be in danger."

The two females nodded and Takato closed the door. Guilmon immediately jumped on him. "Takato! You left me back there!"

Takato chuckled. "I know boy, but didn't you have a good time with Renamon?"

Guilmon frowned. "She didn't talk a lot. She's bossy and mean sometimes."

The three gathered laughed at Guilmon's comments, but after a minute or so, Takuya cleared his throat. "Ahem, Takato…"

Takato stopped laughing and paid attention almost immediately, noting the severity in his tone. "What is it Takuya?"

Takuya rubbed the back of his head nervously. "I think you'd better sit down for what I'm about to tell you."

Takato did so and Takuya breathed in deep. "You know these powers we have?"

Takato nodded.

Takuya acknowledged it and continued. "Well, Shin wasn't all that clear about what we're to do with them…."

After a few minutes, Takuya had relayed what Shin told the digidestined. Rika had silently opened the door and leaned against it right before Takuya had told him how dangerous it was and where they would have to go. While Takuya noticed, he didn't stop, Rika would find out eventually.

"…So that's it Takato. We're leaving tomorrow at noon from the Odaiba high school."

Over the course of the conversation, Takato had gradually paled from the words coming out of Takuya's mouth. Guilmon sat obediently by his Tamer's side with a worried expression focused on Takato and Rika now had her arms crossed in her normal pensive mood.

"Takato?" Takuya tapped him to see if he was alright. Takato held one finger up. "One second." He ran quickly to the side of the house and proceeded to violently empty the contents of his stomach on the grass.

Rika massaged her temples. "That's not good for the grass."

Takuya sighed and Zoe patted him on the back. "You softened it more than Shin did Takuya, don't feel bad."

Rika's attention turned to the other two. "So who's this Shin guy?"

Takuya shrugged. "Once he came around, all this sort of happened." He wrapped an arm around Zoe tightly. "In the process though, he told us we can do great things if we have courage." He looked into sweetly into his girlfriend's eyes. "And he was right."

Zoe smiled and the two kissed, earning an eyebrow raise from Rika. "..Oh, is that why Takato's been acting like that?"

Takuya started snickering as a blushing Takato took his seat again, now donning his helmet to minimize his embarrassment. "Just maybe, anyway, Rika, could you do me a favor?"

Rika placed her hands on her hips expectantly. "Depends on what it is."

Takuya cleared his throat. "Well, if we're gone, then nobody in my team will be able to spirit evolve and they'll all be sitting ducks. Could you and the rest of the Tamers back them up?"

Zoe shook her head. "You're worrying too much Takuya."

Rika put a hand up to ask for silence. "It's ok. The goggleheads need a hand, so we'll hold down the fort, right Zoe?"

Zoe jumped up and hugged Rika, much to the redhead's displeasure. "Yeah! We'll hang out and go shopping too."

Rika sweat-dropped. "That's not exactly what I had in mind."

Now it was Takato's turn to snicker, which earned him a death glare from Rika. Takuya chuckled at his companion's reaction, but moved to pry Zoe off of Rika. "Alright, that's a world of worry off of my mind. Thank you."

Rika nodded coolly. "Yeah, sure thing."

Takuya wrapped an arm around Zoe and picked her up. "Alright, so, I gotta go home and tell my parents….ugh. You want a ride home?"

Zoe hugged him tight and nodded happily. "Yeah! Let's go!"

Takuya smiled and turned to Takato. "Hey man, I know it came as a shock, but remember, we're all in this together."

Takato gave him the thumbs-up and Takuya nodded his goodbye. "Later Takato and goodbye everyone." He shot up into the sky and took off. "See you!" shouted Zoe.

The group waved their goodbyes and as Takuya took off, Takato's knees weakened and he laid out flat on the ground. "Oh man….."

Guilmon sniffed around his tamer. "Takato, are you ok?"

Takato shook his head. "I don't think so."

Rika grew a little annoyed at the laying knight and stood over him. "So that's it huh? Once you find out it's not going to be a piece of cake you quit?"

"Rika…I…"

"No Takato, the knight act's not supposed to disappear when you're going up against something dangerous." She sat down adjacent with back turned. "There's a lot riding on this if I caught everything Takuya said. But it looks like I can't do anything right now, is that right?"

Takato remained silent as she continued. "Look goggles, I don't want to get all mushy here, but I'm trusting you to get this done." Takato stopped staring vacantly at the sky and turned his gaze at her. Even from behind, he could see how tensed she was. "You know what?" he said. "Even if I'm scared out of my mind, I was still gonna go through with it."

Rika turned on him with a bit of anger evident in her features. "Then why…?"

"It meant a lot to hear you say that." He sat up slowly, lifted his helmet and kissed her on the forehead before standing up. "When I get back..Maybe you'd like to get some dinner?"

For the first time, she let him see her reddening face. "Um…sure thing goggles."

Takato smirked and put his helmet back on. "Then I'll make sure I come back alive." He called over to his partner. "Guilmon, let's get going, we've gotta pack." Guilmon ran over and jumped on his back. "Giddy-up horsey!"

Takato hung his head in exasperation. "Oh Guilmon…."

Rika chuckled at the two, as did Renamon, who'd been silently watching over the proceedings. Renamon patted Guilmon on the head and said "You'd better come back as well Guilmon, Terriermon would drive us all insane without you."

Guilmon nodded happily. "Yep! Bye Renamon, bye Rika!" he waved as Takato's cape billowed and the D-Knight took off, leaving only with a "See you later ladies."

Takato leaped and took off in a speedy hovering. A smile tugged at Renamon's lips as she saw her tamer's expression. "They do have a boyish charm about them don't they?"

Rika's eyes were still on the sky when she smiled "darned gogglehead…."

* * *

As night fell, the D-Knights each had their own preparations to make, but none were as sluggish as Davis. His possessions were strewn all about his bed as he sat among them with Veemon playing through legendary campaign on Halo 3. "Grunts everywhere! Headshots all around!"

Shots rang out and children were heard cheering as the grunt heads exploded into confetti and it made the two start laughing. Master Chief was surrounded by brutes and grunts, but Veemon pressed. "Die!" he switched his weapon to the fuel rod cannon and all hell broke loose. "You can't stop the Chief suckers!"

Davis still chuckled at Veemon's fervor, but as his eyes passed over his desk, he saw the simple tools he'd used to shape the necklace as well as his half dangling from the drawer handle. For a moment, his heart sank, but he turned his attention back to his things.

Comics, video games, and a change of clothes were all that went into his back pack and he'd placed his sword on top of that. Shaking himself out of the stupor, he grabbed the sword and marveled at the mystic workmanship. Drawing it out slowly, every inch of the deadly blade shone like sunlight even in the dim confines of his room, illuminating it.

The sword pulsated with comforting energy, but Davis decided it best to put it away and watched Veemon decimate some more covenant forces. Blood starting to boil, the violence was suddenly so invigorating to him; he didn't notice that in his excitement, flames were building on his hands. "Take 'em out Veemon!" he shouted as Master Chief encountered a pair of hunters.

The flames erupted, forcing him to his feet in surprise. "Holy Crap!" looking around frantically, he saw his open window and thrust both arms out of it, blasting the flames into the empty air. Davis breathed a sigh of relief, but turned to meet the worried stare of Veemon, who'd paused his slaughter.

"What's that look for?" Davis asked.

Veemon shrugged. "Just wondering if you're ok…."

Davis shrugged and turned back to his items on the bed. "I couldn't give you a straight answer."

Veemon's face remained unchanged for a moment before he sighed and returned to his game. Davis had heard it, but his head was in turmoil. Feeling equally sore about Kari as he did about worrying his partner, Davis didn't feel like himself. "Hey Veemon…" Veemon paused the game again, but didn't turn "Yeah?"

"….just don't let me get distracted alright?"

Veemon nodded and resumed his firefight, leveling the remaining forces with more battle rifle fire. The glowing computer screen displayed a new IM, playing the first few notes of "Like the Angel" by rise against, which startled Davis out of his reverie. He'd set that sound to play when only a certain person messaged him and he swallowed hard. Risking a quick glance at the screen, his fears were confirmed.

"Davis, I'm sorry about what happened today, but I didn't mean to hurt you…" read the first IM.

Davis stare grew hard. "That was a pretty funny way of showing it…." He muttered to himself. He debated on whether to answer back, but saw she was typing again. "Please Davis, can we talk?" read the next.

For reasons unknown to Davis, her earnest pleas aggravated his mood. He clicked the 'sign off' button on the messenger and went back to packing. His jaw was clenched firmly, but unshed tears coated his eyes.

* * *

**Yeah, wow, pretty heavy stuff at the end. So, let me know what you think. R+R. reviews always prompt me to up my pace for writing these chapters. See you guys next chapter.**


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